m 



GIANTS AND PIOMIES. 



.'■ At the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, I received 

 in exchange from the commissioner of the Egyptian "Depart- 

 ment, specimens of fossiliferous limestones having nummnlites. 

 Travellers have noticed the existence of nummulites in the 

 stones of the CJreat Pyramid. It is supposed that these came from 

 the qnarrien vhich produced our specimen. This illustrates 

 the nummuline dominance in Egypt. Some years ago the Rev. 

 J. Eraser Campbell, the missionary to India of the Canadian 

 Presbyterian Church, presented to the Museum a magnificent 

 Ciypeaster from the vicinity of the Pyramids. In the Canal 

 Company's collections were large petrified oitrsins (sea urchins) 

 found at the Pyramids of Gizeh. In the Calcaire grassier 

 inferienr of Porte de Versailles and Meudon I found abundance 

 of the echini (sea urchins), Pyjoriiichus ciivleri and Echino- 

 lampus similus associated with the Nautilus and Nummulites. 

 These points of resemblance and differeiK are noteworthy. 



20. We are still in Egypt. Its geology is of peculiar 

 interest for other reasons than those adduced in our preceding 

 No. 19. We will proceed to demonstrate why. Under the 

 guidance of Dr. Companyo Fils, physician of the first Suez 

 Canal Company, and with a good map of Egypt, published 

 during the late Egyptian war, wc shall proceed to investigate. 

 We begin at the first cataract of the Nile. Here we have the 

 famous quarries of Assouan, Syene, the Island of Philoe, with 

 the Temple of Isis and the Isle of Elephantine. The familiar 

 Syenite and Syenitic, rock appellatives, oiginate here. If 

 the Canadian voyageurs of the late expedition had been Geolo- 

 gists, the rocks of and around the cataract would have forcibly 

 reminded them of home. 



Our " Archaean " granites, granitic Syenites and other 

 Syenitic rocks correspond essentially with those of Egypt, as the 

 Egyptian centennial specimens testify when compared with our 

 collection from the " typical rocks " at Arisaig, or the correspond- 

 ing rocks in the Cobequids or the mountains of Cape Breton. 

 The term by which we indicate tlie age of our Syenites, &g., 

 Archaean {arche, the beginning) is synonymous with the term 

 Primitive used by our Egyptian director. The granites, &c., 



