Miscellaneous. 141 



On the Organic Bodies contained in Ancient Egyptian Bricks. 

 By Professor Unger. 



The author lately obtained some tiles from the well-known brick 

 pyramid of Dashur, the building of which dates between 3300 and 

 3400 years b.c. These, like all the Egyptian bricks, have been 

 made with an addition of desert sand and chopped straw, in order to 

 give them greater cohesion and durability. Both with the principal 

 mass, the Nile-mud, and the chopped straw, seeds of various plants, 

 animal remains, and artificial products were accidentally introduced 

 into the manufacture ; so that, the consistency of the enclosing 

 substance having remained unaltered, these bodies have also been 

 preserved unchanged to the present time, and are therefore to be 

 recognized quite distinctly. 



The investigation of these bodies, which are generally small, 

 showed the presence, at the remote period of the building of the 

 pyramid, of five different cultivated plants, seven field-weeds, and 

 some local plants, together with several freshwater Mollusca and 

 remains of fishes and insects, &c., but all organisms which still for 

 the most part occur in Egypt, and have hitherto remained un- 

 altered. 



Besides two cereals (wheat and barley), there were found the teff 

 {Eragrostis habyssinica), the field-pea (Pismn arvense), and the 

 flax {Linum usitatissimum) ; the last was, in all probability, employed 

 both as a food-plant and for textile purposes. 



Greater interest attaches to the weeds, which belong to the com- 

 monest kinds, and have necessarily migrated with the cultivated 

 plants, not only over all Europe, but over the greater part of the 

 earth. Among them may be named Rhaphanus Rhaphanistrunif 

 Chrysanthemum segetum. Euphorbia helioscopia, Chenopodium mu- 

 rale, Bupleurum aristatum, and Vicia sativa. 



Of artificial products, there were found fragments of burnt bricks 

 and earthen vessels, a small piece of linen thread and one of woollen 

 thread — all of which indicate a tolerably advanced civilization at the 

 time of the building of this pyramid. Moreover the condition in 

 which all these enclosed objects, especially the chopped straw, oc- 

 curred, proves that brick-making was really carried on in the manner 

 stated by Herodotus and described in Exodus v. 1 1 . 



The author expresses a hope that a continued investigation of this 

 material will furnish much important information as to the com- 

 mencement of civilization in Egypt, and that the dumb and sealed- 

 up bricks of Nile-mud will tell us many things that we seek in vain 

 in the old buildings and sarcophagi, to say nothing of written records. 

 — Ameigen der Akad. der Wiss. in Wien, math-naturw. Classe, 

 June 14, 1866, pp. 141, 142. 



Interchange of Birds betvoeen America and Europe. 



In a memoir presented by Mr. Spencer F. Baird to the National 

 Academy of Sciences, " On the Distribution and Migrations of North 

 American Birds," an abstract of which is published in SiUiman's 

 Journal for January, March, and May of this year, the author de- 



