EGYPTIAN HATCHING. 259 



or bed of flax, or other non-conducting material. 

 In each of the upper rooms is a fire-place for 

 heating the lower rooms, the heat being commu- 

 nicated through a large hole in the centre. This 

 fire-place is a sort of gutter, two inches deep and 

 six wide, in the edge of the floor, sometimes all 

 round, but for the most part on only two of its 

 sides. The smoke escapes through the holes into 

 the galleries and thence into the air. The heat is 

 continued for ten or twelve days, after which the 

 fires are put out, as the building will now retain 

 sufficient heat to carry on the process until the 

 time has expired. One hundred millions of 

 chickens are said to have been annually produced 

 in Egypt. Two-thirds, however, only of the eggs 

 given to the managers of these ovens were ex- 

 pected to be accounted for in their return of fowls 

 hatched. If more were hatched they were the 

 profit of the incubators. Eeaumur says, " Egypt 

 ought to be more proud of these ovens than of her 

 pyramids." Certainly they represent to us the 

 resources of the Egyptians in developing the 

 means of human sustenance as infinitely greater 

 than those of many nations professedly more civil- 

 ized and advanced in the art of life. 



