July 14, 1882.J 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



109 



lated according to the nuiiiLcr of their regnal years, as 

 recorded on the monuments, they stand as follows : — 

 Rameses I. reigned G years. 

 Seti I. reigned 51 years. 

 Rameses II. reigned 67 years. 



To calculate these reigns would, at first sight, seem 

 straightforward enough. If Rameses I. began the dynasty 

 B.C. 1462, must not Seti I. have succeeded u.c. 14.56, and 

 Rameses II. b.c. 14051 And would not the sixty-seventh 

 and last year of Rameses II. have fallen in B.C. 1339? 

 And if we cast up the three reigns, shall we not produce a 

 sum-total of 124 years ? 



Unfortunate!}-, this is precisely what we may not do : 

 and for the reason that Egyptologists, although agreeing as 

 to the length of these various reigns, differ in loto as to 

 whether they were consecutive or synchronous. If con- 

 secutive — each Pharaoh succeeding to the throne upon the 

 death of his predecessor, in regular order — then the three 

 reigns would undoubtedly represent a period of 124 years ; 

 but if synchronous — that is to say, if one Pharaoh began 

 to reign during the lifetime of his predecessor, and counted 

 his first regnal year from that date, instead of from the 

 year when his predecessor died — then an entirely new 

 calculation, resulting in a much-abridged total, will have to 

 be made. 



Fairly stated both ways, the question stands thus : — 



1. The XlXth dynasty began with Rameses I., who 

 reigned six years, and who may, or may not, have shared 

 his brief authority with Seti I., his successor. But Seti I., 

 who reigned for fifty-one years, undoubtedly shared his 

 throne with Rameses II. for many years before he died ; 

 and Rameses II., more than half a century later, as cer- 

 tainly took his own successor, Menephthah, into the same 

 kind of roj-al partnership. Now, according to the syn- 

 chronous theory, which is Brugsch's theory, Rameses II. 

 dated his regnal year from the time of his association with 

 Seti T. ; at which time Brugsch supposes him to have been 

 about twelve or thirteen years of age. Some thirty, or 

 thirty odd, years of his long reign of sixty-seven years 

 would thus, it is maintained, be counted in with the reign 

 of his father. If, therefore, accepting B.C. 1462 for the 

 commencement of the XlXtli dynasty, we allow, in round 

 numbers, thirty years for the joint sovereignty of Seti I. 

 and Rameses II., we bring the beginning of the younger 

 Pharaoh's reign to B.C. 1435 ; his accession to the un- 

 divided crown to B.C. 1405 ; and his death, at the close of 

 a reign of sixty-seven years, to B.C. 1368. Total of three 

 reigns, from B.C. 1462 to B.C. 1368—94 years. 



2. The advocates of the consecutive theory, as opposed 

 to the advocates of the synchronous theory, found their 

 argument upon the details of certain military campaigns 

 wliich are clironicltd in the form of sculptured bas-reliefs 

 and graven inscriptions upon the walls of various temples 

 in Nubia and Upper Egypt. Here, at battles and sieges 

 distinctly dated as having taken place in the fifth 

 and eighth years of his reign, Rameses II. is 

 represented accompanied by several of his sons, who, 

 though evidently mere youths, are at all events old 

 enough to take part in the thickest of the fight. That 

 the king is liimself depicted in these tableaux as a man 

 in the prime of life, cannot be accepted as evidence either 

 way, since the artist would, of course, so represent him, no 

 matter liow old or how young ho might be. But that a 

 youth of seventeen or twenty should be tlie father of sons 

 ranging from, at least, twelve to fifteen years of age, would 

 be somowliat miraculous. If, however, wo suppose the 

 monumental dates of the reign of Rameses If. to be 

 counted from the year of the death of Seti I., tlien 

 Rameses 11. would be thirty -five or forty years of age in ' 



the fifth year of liis reign, and old enough to be the 

 father of a large grown-up family. This, at all events, is 

 the opinion of Maspero, of Lenormant, and of the majority 

 of French and English Egyptologists. Starting, therefore, 

 with B.C. 1402, for the beginning of the XlXth dynasty, 

 the consecutive theory brings up the reigns of Rameses I., 

 Seti I, and Rameses II. to a total of 124 years. 



Beginning, as before, with the synchronous hypothesis, 

 and holding fast to b.c. 1402, for the commencement of 

 the XlXth dynasty, we will next see to what extent 

 these dates correspond with the era of Nubti and the 

 Hykshos calendar. 



{To he continued.) 



ENGLISH SEASIDE HEALTH-RESORTS. 



By Alfred Haviland, M.R.C.S., F.R.M.C.S. Lend. 



CLASSIFICATION {Continued from page 02). 



II. — As TO THEIR Position on tue Seaboard; whether 



THEY enjoy the WARM MOIST AlB FROM THE GULF 

 STREA.M, TUE BRACING AlR OF THE NOBTH SeA, OR AN 



Atmosphere brought by the Winds after it has 

 LOST ITS Sea character by passing over thousands 



OP SQUARE miles OF CONTINENT. 



THE Gulf stream, which has such a powerful influence 

 on the climate, not oidy of our seaboard, but of the 

 whole of the British Isles, must naturally claim the atten- 

 tion of aU who really desire to acquire a sound knowledge 

 of the cause of the exceptional high air temperature of our 

 country within the interlatitudinal zones, described above, 

 compared with that of other parts of the northern hemi- 

 sphere lying within the same zones, but between different 

 degrees of longitude to our east and west 



For the sake of clearness we may draw a distinction 

 between the winter and summer temperatures of our 

 atmosphere, inasmuch as their causes are distinct, although 

 both are originally due to one grand cause — the sun. Our 

 winter heat is an exotic, begotten by the sun-heat that 

 pours down on the waters of the Gulf of ^Mexico, a large 

 portion of which, as well as their point of issue, the Straits 

 of Florida, lie under the tropic of Cancer. This sun-heat, 

 tlius conceived by the sea, is transported in a north-easterly 

 direction, by the vast marine current of the Atlantic, 

 which owes its origin to the south westerly anti trade winds 

 (our true south-west winds), to the Arctic regions, where, 

 as it crosses the 80° of North latitude, its influence 

 is still so great upon the atmosphere above it, between 

 70° E. and 10° W. long., as to create a mean annual tem- 

 perature of 11° 22 Fahr., or an excess of 8° 96 over that 

 of all other longitudes crossing the same parallel. Tlus 

 same sun-heat, of which the Atlantic is delivered along th" 

 whole course of the Gulf Stream, gives life, liealth, and 

 vegetation to a large area of land, where, without its benign 

 influence, the winter cold would kill, or make life diflicult 

 to the weak and diseased. 



Tliis vast volume of warm water, the Korth-eastcrn 

 branch of wliich, after its separation from the South- 

 eastern at 47° N. lat., and 2.'>° \V. long, flows to the north 

 and east along the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway, 

 between Europe and Iceland, and, as Haughton remarks, 

 probably extends beyond Spit/.bergen. The same author is 

 of opinion that "this portion of the Gulf Stream owes its 

 momentum to the .S'oi(//i-in>< niititniihs ; while the other, 

 or South-eastern portion, is deflected by the earth's rotation 

 to the south-east and south, and flows southwards along 



