Mr. L. Horner on the Alluvial -Land of Egypt. ^^%- 



with that deposited by the inundatioa of the present day. At a 

 depth of 5 teet 8 inches from the surface of the ground they came . 

 upon the upper surface of the platform on which the colossus had 

 stood, consisting of two courses of cyclopean masonry, together 

 5 feet 6 inches thick, resting on an artificial bed of sand, the sand rest- 

 ing on Nile sediment. Throughout the excavation various objects of 

 art and some bones of domestic animals were met with, and the boring 

 instrument brought up from the lowest depth a fragment of pottery. 



The author next proceeds to describe, with references to detailed 

 sections, seventeen pits and borings sunk in the area of Memphis, 

 and also a series of seven pits opened in ground below the inundation 

 level of 1851, in a line across the valley from the foot of the Libyan 

 Hills on the west of the Nile, to the skirt of the Arabian Hills on 

 the east of the river, embraced within an area of about five miles 

 from west to east, and a mile from north to south. 



In 1854 another series of pits and borings were sunk in the parallel 

 of Heliopolis, above eight miles above the apex of the Delta, in 

 ground below the inundation level of 1853, which was very nearly 

 the same as that of 1851, the hue including fifty-one pits in a 

 distance of about sixteen miles, eight miles on the right, and eight 

 miles on the left bank of the river ; two of them near the river were 

 carried to a depth of 50 feet, and one to a depth of 60 feet from the 

 surface of the ground. This last reached to within 7\ inches of the 

 mean level of the Mediterranean. 



The author then reviews the chief facts made known by the 

 ninety-five probings of the alluvial land above described, and gives 

 the following results : — 



1. That the alluvium consists of two principal kinds, viz. an argil- 

 laceous earth or loam more or less mixed with fine sand, and of 

 quartzose sand, which is probably brought from the adjacent deserts 

 by violent winds ; 



2. That the Nile sediment found at the lowest depth reached is 

 very similar in composition to that of the present day ; 



3. That in no instance did the boring instrument strike upon the 

 solid rock, which may be presumed to form the basin between the 

 Libyan and Arabian Hills, containing the alluvium accumulated 

 through unknown ages ; 



4. That, except minute organisms discoverable only by a powerful 

 microscope, few organic remains were found, and those met with 

 were recent land shells and bones of domestic animals ; 



5. That there has not been found a traceof an extinct organicbody; 

 G. That at the same level great varieties in the alluvium have 



been found in adjoining pits, even when the distances between them 

 were very moderate ; 



7. That there is an absence of all lamination in the sediment. 

 The author points out the causes that account for this, — chiefly the 

 rapid drying of the soil, so soon as the inundation water has sub- 

 sided, the operations of agriculture, and the violent winds that sweep 

 over the valley forming vast clouds of dust ; 



8. That in many places the disintegrations of sun-burnt brick^ 

 have contributed largely to the soil ; 



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