36 BORINGS IN EGYPT IN 1S51-1S58. CHAP. ill. 



intendence of Hekekyan Bey were on a large scale for the 

 first sixteen or twenty-four feet, in which cases jars, vases, 

 pots, and a small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, 

 and other entire articles were dug up ; but when water soaking 

 through from the Nile was I'eached, the boring instrument used 

 was too small to allow of more than fragments of works of art 

 being brought up. Pieces of burnt brick and pottery were 

 extracted almost everywhere, and from all depths, even where 

 they sank sixty feet below the surface towards the central jjarts 

 of the valley. In none of these cases did thej-get to the bottom 

 of the alluvial soil. It has been objected, among other criti- 

 cisms, that the Arabs can always find whatever their employers 

 desire to obtain. Even those who ai"e too well acquainted with 

 the sagacity and energy of Hekekyan Bey to suspect him of 

 having been deceived, have suggested that the artificial ob- 

 jects might have fallen into old wells which had been filled up. 

 This notion is inadmissible for many reasons. Of the ninety- 

 five shafts and borings, seventy or more were made far from 

 the sites of towns or villages ; and, allowing that every field 

 may once have had its well, there would be but small chance 

 of the borings striking upon the site even of a small number 

 of them in seventy experiments. 



Others have suggested that the Nile may have wandered 

 over the whole valle}', undermining its banks on one side 

 and filling up old channels on the other. It has also been 

 asked whether the delta with the numerous shifting arms of 

 the river may not once have been at every point where 

 the auger pierced.* To all these objections there are two ob- 

 vious answers: — First, in historical times the Nile has on the 

 whole been very stationary, and has not shifted its position 

 in the valley ; secondly, if the mud pierced through had been 

 thrown down by the river in ancient channels, it would have 



* For a detailed account of these Philosophical Transactions for 1S55- 

 sections, see Mr. Horner's paper in the 1858. 



