274 SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., 



Alabaster, as distinguished from limestone, is a crystalline, 

 translucent material, deposited in the manner of stalagmite, 

 in veins, or filling caverns in the limestone. It is thus a 

 local and irregular deposit ; but the Egyptians managed to 

 obtain it in several places, in quantities not only sufficient for 

 vases and minor ornamental purposes, but in blocks and 

 slabs sufficiently large to form shrines and to line portions of 

 tombs, and even of temples. One locality where it has been 

 extensively quarried is in the cliffs on the west side of the 

 Nile, near Beni Suef. 



The Egyptian alabaster is sometimes colourless, but more 

 frequently banded with agate-like lines of grey and light 

 brown, whence the name onyx-marble sometimes given 

 to it. 



Gypseous or soft alabaster does not seem to have been 

 much used in Egypt, but small vases and other objects made 

 of it are sometimes found. 



Cleavable transparent calc-spar, probably obtained from 

 veins in the limestone, was sometimes used by the Egyptians 

 for minor ornaments and beads, probably as a substitute for 

 rock crystal. 



5. Miocene Quartzite of Jebel Ahmar, &c. 



My first acquaintance with this stone dates from a time 

 long anterior to my visit to the locality. My late friend, 

 Dr. Douglas, of Quebec, had formed in successive visits to 

 Egypt a large and interesting collection of antiquities, in 

 examining which I noticed a small slab, or funereal stela, 

 inscribed with hieroglyphics, and which specially attracted 

 my attention from the fact that it was executed in quartzite 

 of so great hardness as to defy ordinary sculpture with steel 

 tools. At the time, I knew such rocks only as occurring in 

 the old Cambrian series in Canada, and had not learned that 

 they occurred in Egypt. The choice of a stone so hard 

 seemed strange on the part of a people whom I had scarcely 

 supposed capable of dealing with material so refractory, the 

 use of the diamond drill by the ancient Egyptians being then 

 unknown. I remarked at the time that the sculptor, or his 

 employer, had evidently determined to possess an indestruct- 

 ible monument, "regardless of expense," but it seemed im- 

 possible to understand how he could by any expenditure 

 have succeeded in his purpose. 



Jebel Ahmar, the Red Mountain, lies a little to the east of 

 the Mokattam Hill, in the vicinity of Cairo, and from its 



