316 Fossil Elephant. — Egyptian Antiquities. 



FOSSIL ELEPHANT. 



A fossil elephant has been discovered on the east side of 

 Lyons, in a garden situated on the hill which separates the 

 Rhine and the Saone. The bones were found in what the 

 men supposed was virgin earth, that had never been turned up 

 by either spade or pick-axe. M. Bredin, the Director of the 

 Royal Veterinary School, repaired to the spot, and recognised 

 in the huge bones discovered by the workmen, the bones of an 

 elephant. The humerus was twelve feet and a half long, and 

 nine inches broad at its upper extremity ; the tibia was two 

 feet and a half; and two fragments of the scapulum were toge- 

 ther two feet in length. There was the head of a femur, and 

 several other pieces of bones, so that M. Bredin had no diffi- 

 culty in coining to a decision. Among the elephant's bones 

 the bones of an ox were also discovered. — French Journal. 



EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



M. Champollion jun., having proceeded to Turin under the 

 auspices of His Majesty, to study the collection of Egyptian 

 antiquities brought together by M. Drouette, and forming at 

 present the Royal Egyptian Museum of the King of Pied- 

 mont, has already made known some of the principal monu- 

 ments of this museum. We extract the following communi- 

 cations from his letters : 



" By the kind permission of His Excellency Count Chale, 

 Minister of the Interior, I have gained admission to the Royal 

 Egyptian Museum. I had previously admired in the Palace 

 of the University a fine statue of Sesostris, in rose granite, 

 eight feet high; the upper part of a statue of the wife of that 

 king, the queen Ari ; and another statue with a lion's head, 

 similar to two statues in the Museum of Paris, and bearing an 

 inscription of the reign of Amenophis II. 



" It was on the 9th of June that I visited for the first time 

 the Egyptian Museum : nothing is comparable to this im- 

 mense collection. I found the court crowded with colossal 

 figures in rose granite and green basalt. The interior is also 

 peopled with colossal monuments. A first examination dis- 

 covered to me a group of eight feet in height : it turned out 

 to be Amon-Ra, seated, having beside him King Horus, son 

 of Amenophis II. of the eighteenth dynasty — an admirable 

 work ; I had seen nothing equal to this. 2dly, A colossal 

 statue of King Misphra-Thouthmosis, in the same state of 

 preservation as when it issued from the workshop. 3dly, A 

 Monolith six feet high; it represents Ramses the Great 

 (Sesostris), seated upon a throne between Amon-Ra andNeith, 

 of rose granite, and is a perfect work. 4thly, A colossal 



figure 





