HERODOTUS AND EGYPTIAN GEOLOGY. 67 



pi^ession when the granite was in a semi-liquid state, is a matter 

 of question amongst lithologists at the present day. I examined 

 a section of the little railway at Syene which cuts through 

 this rock. It shows the laminated varieties we call gneiss, and 

 others which could be distinctly called granite, but both were 

 quarried by Egyptians, who used indifferently true granite and 

 the allied rock to which we give the name of gneiss. The 

 grey granite to which the paper referred contains a considerable 

 amount of mica, and was used by the Egyptians, but not to a 

 great extent, partly because it is difficult to procure in large blocks, 

 and partly, also, because it is a less attractive stone and is less easily 

 dealt with in taking a fine polish. When they used a dark stone 

 they preferred another rock consisting of hornblende and white 

 felspar of a distinct species, a white and black stone with a uniform, 

 grain, or sometimes with white spots of felspar in it. This is a 

 Diorite, and is found at Assouan near the granite. 



Some of the largest and finest of the older statuary, such as that 

 of the statue of Chephren, the builder of the Second Pyramid, is 

 made of another stone (Anorthosite), composed of a peculiar 

 glistening felspar with small quantities of dark hornblende in it, 

 and which, when polished, has much the aspect of a grey marble, 

 though more lustrous and much harder. 



There is another question which is of interest, and which no 

 doubt attracted the attention of Herodotus, and that is the 

 success of the Egyptians in cutting the immense blocks of this 

 refractory stone, and engraving on them their hieroglyphics in such 

 a beautiful way. As the author has pointed out, the quarries 

 at Assouan afforded large blocks of stone without joints or flaws, 

 but there was connected with this jiroperty the labour — so patiently 

 and carefully performed in drilling holes in these great stones and 

 driving wedges into them and breaking them off little by little 

 and carrying them on rollers down to the banks of the river at 

 times of inundation, and then working them up into their beautiful 

 obelisks. If you look at the obelisk on the Thames Embankment 

 you may wonder how they cut such deep and beautiful carving on 

 it, and you may wonder moie when you hear it was set up by 

 Tliothmes III, one of the greatest of Egyptian kings, and pro- 



