90 [Assembly 



The superiority of linen to cotton in the manufacture of paper 

 need not be pointed out, and it is fortunate that there can be no 

 admixture of the inferior article, the Egyptians being acquainted 

 but slightly, if at all, with the latter; indeed, so rare was it that 

 no mention is made of it by the earlier historians I have quoted, 

 except Pliny the elder (not always accurate), who states that " the 

 cotton plant (the gossipium arboreum or Sea Island long staple of 

 our Southern States) was cultivated in India and Upper Egypt, 

 and the fabric produced from it was used by the Egyptian high 

 priests as an article of clothing, but was always looked upon as 

 a rare and expensive stuff." We have proof of this in the pauci- 

 ty of cotton fabrics in Dr. Abbott's valuable museum of Egyptian 

 antiquities now on exhibition in this city, and which comprises 

 every variety of textile and fictile manufacture of this interesting 

 people, and many other unique and valuable articles, from the 

 period of Abraham's visit to Egypt, four hundred years after the 

 Mosaic (not geological) delug-e, and during the reigns of all the 

 Pharoahs to the period of five hundred years after Christ. 



Hemp was not unknown to them, but, curiously enough, it was 

 of that kind, hitherto supposed to be indigenous to New Zealand 

 (thephormium tenax), but even this was of comparative modern 

 date, and the only sample I have myself verified was a wick from 

 an earthen lamp from the tombs of Sakkara, twelve miles from 

 Cairo, which the characters impressed on showed to belong to the 

 Ptolemaic period. 



The question of " will it pay 1 " may be readily answered by 

 assuming the value of the rags to be from 4 to 6 cents per pound; 

 in the United States this is considerable under the market esti- 

 mate of fine linen rags; the cost of purchasing, collecting and 

 transportation would be under 3 cents, while on the other hand 

 the substances used in the process of embalming would be far 

 more valuable than the swathing envelopes ; aromatic gums of 

 the rarest and most expensive qualities, and such as are now used 

 in preparing the costliest incenses for the high ceremonies of the 

 Catholic Church, I speak of olibanum, labdanum, issopouax, am- 

 bergris, &c. These and other resins of an equally rare species, 

 were employed in embalming the superior class of mummies, and 



