DOMAIN XI. DECOMPOSED. 



tuous apartments of a Haram. It is also 

 conceived by antiquaries, that some of the 

 finest monuments of ancient Rome perish- 

 ed in this manner during the middle ages. 

 It must not be forgotten that stones ap- Hard stones 



r may decom- 



parently hard, are sometimes more subject pose% 

 to decay than those of a softer contexture. 

 rhe pyramids of Egypt have suffered little 

 iegradation, though constructed with a soft 

 alcareous konite*. The Roman Pharos, 

 t Dover, remains almost entire, though 

 >uilt with a soft stalactitic tufa, found in 

 bundance on the shores of several rivers ; 

 ar example, the Tees, in the north of 

 England. The transportation of this stone 

 -cm a distance, seems to evince that there 

 s some reason for giving it a preference ; 

 nd as it is coralloid in it's structure, it was 

 erhaps justly conceived that it would emit 

 le moisture with the same ease as it was 

 reived, and hence be little subject to 



* Strabo says, that one of the pyramids was more expensive, as 

 e lower part was built with basalt, from Ethiopia ; a circumstance 

 lich seems to have escaped the attention of travellers, probably 

 >m the white crust which invests basalt. But some were covered 

 ith granite : see Dom. II. 



VOL. II. Q 



