HEEODOTUS AND EGYPTIAN GEOLOGY. 63 



larger proportion of the rock of magnesiaii limestone 

 wherein they are so numerously imbedded as to be a con- 

 spicuous object deserving- the epithet of (jiatvofxeva here 

 employed. When placed edgewise or sectionally, their 

 appearance resembles that of lentils, so as to mislead Strabo 

 the historian into the belief that these were the petrified 

 residue of the workmen of the Pyramids. This particular 

 species is denominated by scientists therefore, Nautilus lenti- 

 cularis or mammilla, from its supposed resemblance to 

 another well known object. Fossil Echini likewise occur 

 in the Mokattam hills, but the above named nuraraulites 

 being by far the most numerous, are therefore doubtless the 

 ones that attracted the historian's attention, and furnished 

 the subject of his description. 



Whereas the soil of Libya is, Ave know, more of a reddish 

 hue, and more sandy : — 

 Tr]v Se Aol3v7]v iSfiev ipvdpoTeprjv re ^r}V Kul viroylrafxfj.oriprjv. 



And that of Arabia and Syria inclines to stone and clay : — 

 Tr]v Se 'A pa/3 i7]v re koI 'Evplrjv apytXcoSecTTeprjv re Kol 

 vTVoirerpov eovcrav. 



licit., Lib. II, 12. 



If in the district of Arabia Herodotus included the terri- 

 tory situate between the east bank of the Nile and the Red 

 Sea, while he designated as Libya the land on the west 

 bank of the Nile, even as in modern times the east and 

 west banks are termed the Libyan and Arabian respec- 

 tively, his description can be abundantly verified. 



1'here is, as a rule, much more golden sand of very fresh 

 and recently drifted appearance, and that looks as if it 

 had been finely sifted on the western bank, and the debris 

 of volcanic shale are commonly far -more numerous on the 

 eastern bank. 



Compare as evidence of the above the following passage 

 from Nine Hundred Miles iq? the Nile, p. 192, and in refei-ence 

 to the panoramic view enjoyed from El Ghawarnee in the rear 

 of Korosko, Nubia, about 827 miles distant from Alexandria : 

 •' The golden sands across the western bank contrast beauti- 

 fully with the blue river ; and the dark volcanic shale, that 

 forms the surface covering of eastern and western hills 

 alike, and on the eastern hills and ravines among which Ave 

 are now standing, is so plentifully strcAvn as to give the 

 neai est intervening basin betAveen us and the next range 



