THEORY OF THE EARTH. Ill 



the falcon, the Egyptian goose, the lapwing, the 

 landrail, the aspic, the cerastes, the Egyptian hare 

 with its long ears, and even the hippopotamus ; 

 and, among the numerous monuments engraved in 

 the great work on Egypt, we sometimes observe 

 the rarest animals, the algazel, for example, which 

 was not seen in Europe until within these few 

 years *. 



My learned colleague, M. Geoffrey Saint-Hi- 

 laire, strongly convinced of the importance of this 

 research, carefully collected in the tombs and tem- 

 ples of Upper and Lower Egypt as many mum- 

 mies of animals as he could. He has brought 

 home cats, ibises, birds of prey, dogs, monkeys, 

 crocodiles, and the head of an ox, in this state ; 

 and there is certainly no more difference to be 

 perceived between these mummies and the species 

 of the same kind now alive, than between the hu- 

 man mummies and the skeletons of men of the 

 present day. A difference may, indeed, be found 

 between the mummies of the ibis and the bird 

 which naturalists have hitherto described under 

 that name ; but I have cleared up all doubts on 



* The first figure made of it from nature is in the De- 

 scription de la Menagerie, a work composed by M. Cuvier. 

 It is seen perfectly represented in the great work on Egypt. 

 Antiq. t. iv. pi. xlix. 



