70 KEY. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S., ON 



Rev. S. KiNNS, Ph.D. — May I refer to the perfection which the 

 Egyptians attained in cutting stones ? In the British Museum 

 we have, in red granite, a magnificent arm of Thothmes III, the 

 cutting of which manifests great skill, and apparently the 

 use of excellent tools. There is also, in that Museum, a very 

 fine bust and head of Seti I, sculptured in that black granite 

 which Dr. Walker has mentioned, and also some very fine speci- 

 mens in pink granite. A visit to the Museum after this excellent 

 paper would enable one to see illustrations of the various coloured 

 granites in which the monuments are chiselled. [After some 

 remai'ks involving an earlier date for Joseph's time, Dr. Kinns 

 said] : — I would suggest that the princess who was Moses' foster- 

 mother was not the daughter of Rameses II, but of Seti I, for 

 the monuments tell us that Rameses II died at the age of 79, and 

 that he reigned for 69 years. Now Moses was 80 years of age 

 when he returned to Egypt, and Rameses, who had just died, 

 was one year younger than Moses. 



Canon Girdlestone, M.A. — I think we owe a debt to Dr. 

 Walker for rehabilitating Herodotus, the father of history. I 

 need not remind you that Herodotus lived about the time of 

 Malachi, so that he was the father of Greek and Hebrew history. 

 It reminds us how far back Old Testament history runs, seeing it 

 closes at the beginning of what we ordinarily call the Greek 

 historical research period. One other point in the paper I 

 should like to mention. People are often surprised tliat there 

 are not more monuments in Palestine. The reason is simply a 

 geological one. Palestine has not got the kind of stone which is 

 calculated to be monumental. The stone of Palestine is limestone 

 and of a very crumblmg nature ; so that the old statues and 

 carvings there have, for the most part, perished. Yoa have to go 

 north-east of the Jordan to get basalt, and that class of stone out 

 of which such monuments as the well-known " Moabite stone " 

 might be made. One word more and I have done. About twenty- 

 five yeai-s ago the truth of the Old Testament was contested in 

 certain quarters. The whole story of Creation, of the Deluge and 

 other events, and the treatment of history in connection with what 

 is usually called the spiritual, was scoffed at hy some as impossible. 

 In consequence, the Old Testament, which is the foundation of the 

 New, seemed, in the eyes of some inquirers, to be in a perilous 

 position. There was wanted some one who would stand up 

 boldly, a man of science, an archosologist, a geologist, a theologist, 



