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146 
CURIOUS FIREBALL 
SiR J. C. COWELL has kindly sent the accompanying 
sketch of a firevall which he saw fall “ one mile east 
of Slough at 2.8 P.M. on November 30 last,” during the 
, NATURE 
Po a a 
Se te ee A ne re va nes ye Coe 
[Dec. 26, 1872 
t and sharp thunderstorm which passed over North 
vege and East Berks. “The flash fell about 150 yards 
south of the G. W. Railway, and terminated with the ex- 
plosion of a fireball, which seemed (it was daylight) about 
12 ft. in diameter, The explosion was similar to that of a 
} Fire-ball seen near Slough, Novy. 30. 
heavy gun when fired, and the ball appeared to burst on 
the flash reaching the ground, exactly like a well-timed 
shell,” 
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE GREAT PYRA- 
MID OF EGYPT—ANCIENT EGYPTIAN 
WEIGHT 
By addition to the casing-stone of the Great Pyramid, 
mentioned in NATURE of Nov. 28 as having recently 
arrived in England, Mr. Dixon has also sent the following 
articles found by him in newly-opened passages of the 
Great Pyramid :— . r 
1. A small double hook of bronze, with rivetted pins 
for attaching it to a handle. 
2. A small rectanzular rod of cedar, broken at one end, 
and some fragments. ; 7 
3. A granite ball, supposed to be an ancient weight. 
Not the least curious and interesting part of Mr. Dixon’s 
discovery is that of the passages or channels in which these 
articles were found. The publications of Prof. Piazzi Smyth 
and othershave made usacquainted with the position of the 
King’s Chamber in the central part of the Great Pyramid, 
with its coffer, and ascending passages leading from it ; as 
well as with that of the Queen’s Chamber, with its walls 
formed of the finest and whitest limestones, highly worked, 
this chamber having but one entrance by the horizontal 
passage leading to it, and its purpose proving such an 
enigma to our Astronomer Royal for Scotland. In ex- 
amining the walls of the Queen’s Chamber, with the view 
of ascertaining whether there existed any air channels 
communicating with it, similar to those of the King’s 
Chamber, discovered by Colonel Howard Vyse in 1837, 
Mr. Dixon found, by inserting a wire between the joints 
of the masonry of the south wall, that there was a hollow 
space behind this part of the south wall. 
On drilling a hole through the upper part of the’second 
stone from the floor, about midway between the east and 
west walls, at five inches depth a cavity was found, and 
the hole was then enlarged sufficiently to admit a man’s 
head and arm with a lighted candle. A passage or 
channel was thus disclosed, nearly nine inches by eight 
in rectangular section, which had been carefully cut 
through the stone to within five inches of the face of the 
wall in the Queen’s Chamber, the end surface being accu- 
rately squared and finished off. ‘This channel extended 
in a horizontal direction for the length of seven feet, and 
then ascended at an angle of about 32°. The sides of 
the channel were found to be blackened with smoke, like 
the walls of the Queen’s Chamber, and it was thought 
that a slight draught was perceptible. The bronze hook 
was discovered lying amongst a small heap of débris at 
the bottom of the ascending channel. 
This channel on the south side of the Queen’s Chamber 
having been discovered, which appeared to be precisely 
similar to the air channel of the King’s Chamber, and to 
ascend at the same angle, an attempt was naturally made 
to find a corresponding channel behind the wall on the 
north side of the Queen’s Chamber, though no indication 
of any such channel presented itself on the surface of the 
wall. After using measuring rods to mark a spot exactly 
opposite to the drilled hole on the south wall, a hole was 
bored in the north wall, and a similar cavity was at once 
found. By enlarging the opening as before, a second 
channel was discovered of the same dimensions, and 
which, after proceeding horizontally for seven feet, also 
ascended at an angle of about 32°. 
The surface of the stone in the channel on the north 
side appeared to be as clean as when originally cut, and 
the cement of the joints was perfectly white. There was 
a ey 
