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



route from India to Egypt and Europe. The third range consists 

 of high mountains some 7,000 feet high ; these are about 20 miles 

 inland, and extend south to Berenice, with a branch sweeping to 

 the west across the Nile at Assouan, forming the first cataract. 

 In this range are the ancient quarries of Egyptian Porphyry ; these 

 supplied the Romans with all their choice material, and the granite 

 quarries produced half the columns in the portico of the Pantheon 

 in Rome, and all those of the Eorum of: Trajan. The quarries of 

 Breche Verde of the Egyptian, also in this range, supplied choice 

 material for their sarcophagi (as see the one in British Museum) 

 and innumerable columns of later date. A green serpentine was 

 also quarried, and much used for turneiy. The boulders out of the 

 Breche Verde supplied choice hard materials for their best 

 " sc arabea." The quartz veins contained gold and copper, giving 

 employment to an immense number of miners. The southern range 

 near Berenice contain the famous emerald mines, probably the 

 oldest knowm. These mines and the whole of this desert are 

 being exploited by Mr. E. A. Floyer, F.G.S. 



Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen, F.R. Hist. Soc. — There is a remark- 

 able point that seems to indicate a connection with Egypt, and 

 that is that upon the knee of two of the statues at the Louvre, 

 is a kind of tablet upon which is drawn a plan of a building, very 

 carefully done with a burin or graver, and by the side of it, on the 

 edge of the drawing board, if I may use the expression, is a finely 

 carved scale divided accurately into divisions which could not be 

 the Babylonian cubit, but the Egyptian cubit. We now kuow 

 that at a much earlier period than was thought there was a close 

 intercourse between Babylonia and Egypt both by land and by 

 sea. There is one other point that I may throw a little light on, 

 perhaps, and that is with regard to the use of the diamond drill. 

 The diamond drill was used amongst the early Babylonians at a 

 very early period, and was very likely got from Egypt. That is 

 shown by the curious fact that in the list of stones the Hebrew 

 sbamir or diamond is expressed by two ; ign3 which mean a boring 

 stone, and a French sculptor about fifteen years ago, who devoted 

 a good deal of attention to the study of working the stone in 

 which the statues fron Babylonia were carved and the way in which 

 the hard gems were cut, told me he had come to the conclusion, 

 from the unfinished specimens he had seen, that the work was done 

 by a series of little drilled holes and then working it down with 



