708 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
while its civilization and polish so impressed the people, that to this hour a Ben- 
galee Pundit, desirous of describing and honoring his native tongue, calls it not 
Bengalee, but Goureye bhasha, ‘‘The tongue of Gour,” just as a Frenchman 
says, ‘‘ That is Parisian.” 
And then, as it were in a day, the city died. The native tradition is that 
it was struck by the wrath of the gods, in the form of an epidemic, which slew 
the whole population ; but it is more reasonable to believe, with Mr. Ravenshaw, 
that the epidemic, probably akin to cholera, finished a ruin partly acccmplished 
by war and by the recession of the Ganges, which, after cutting its way into a 
channel four miles off, is now slowly cutting its way back again.— London Spectator. 
A SHORT STORY OF THE OBELISK. 
BY LIEUT.-COMMANDER GORRINGE. 
Lieut.-Commander Gorringe, who has successfully brought the obelisk from 
its Alexandrian home to our Central Park, told the story of the Egyptian monu- 
ment before the New York Association for the Advancement of Science and Art 
in the Brick church, at Fifth avenue and Thirty-seventh street, last evening. 
Thirty-five centuries have passed, he said, since the obelisk was severed from its 
natural surroundings by the hand of man and wrought into its present form. On 
the banks of the Nile, about six hundred miles from the sea, is an immense mass 
of granite, known as syenite, noted for its freedom from cracks, veins or foreign 
substances, and the beautiful polish of which it is susceptible. An obelisk now 
standing at Heliopolis, five miles from Cairo, taken from this quarry, was erected 
more than four thousand years ago; and four thousand years ago a priest quarried 
from this place, and transported six hundred miles, a shaft weighing one hundred 
and fifty tons, which was so highly polished that the polish still remains. With 
all the science of our own day, it would tax the most skillful workmen to repro- 
duce the figures cut upon that shaft, and then give the surface such a lasting 
polish. 
‘¢On the base of the obelisk of Hatazon,’’ continued the speaker, ‘‘it is 
recorded that only seven months elapsed from the time she gave the order to 
quarry the stone to the date of its final completion. ‘To me this record means 
that the ancient Egyptians were possessed of mechanical appliances superior to 
those in use at the present day. By taking time enough, and employing men 
enough, there is hardly a limit to the weight that can be moved, but in the crea- 
tion, transportation, and erection of an obelisk, the number of men is limited to 
comparatively a few, and I am quite sure that there is not a man living who would 
undertake in seven months, upon the penalty of his life, to quarry, transport 
six hundred miles, erect, carve and polish a granite shaft one hundred and twenty 
feet long, weighing three hundred and fifty tons, such as that of Queen Hatazon 
at Karnak. I dwell on this fact so that you may realize that in spite of the won- 
