April 20, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



369 



EXPLORATION IN EGYPT. 



IT is well known that we owe the home-bringing 

 of the Alexandrian Obelisk, now standing on the 

 Thames Embankment, to the generosity and energy of 

 the late Sir Erasmus Wilson. 



The voyage, the shipwreck, loss, recovery, and the 

 passing through the Law Courts of this famous Needle, 

 are still fresh in our memories. But it is by no means 

 widely known that the work of Sir Erasmus Wilson, 

 in connection with Egj'pt, did not end, but rather began 

 "with the bringing of this treasure to England. Jealous 

 that to France and Germany alone should be left the 

 honour of uncovering the past history of a country 

 with whom England has in later times had such stirring 

 relations. Sir E. Wilson, in co-operation with Miss 

 Amelia B. Edwards, and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole of 

 ■the British Museum, founded and organised the Egypt 



The first operations of the society were directed to the 

 Delta. Scattered over the low-level lands between the 

 mouths of the Nile, are numberless mounds, under which 

 lie hidden the remains of ancient cities, all built on slight 

 eminences, which once were part of the bed of the 

 Mediterranean and covered by its waters. These mounds, 

 which are made up of the accumulated strata of ruins of 

 each succeeding period, are rapidly disappearing year by 

 year, as the peasantry of the country dig out the heart of 

 them for the light bricky soil, to spread as manure over 

 their fields of barley and clover. 



Where blocks of temples and drums of columns are 

 found (all more or less inscribed with valuable historical 

 records), the Arabs drag them to the lime kiln ; and 

 statues and shrines are broken up, to find the secret 

 treasures of gold and silver which are supposed to have 

 been locked up within them by the magicians of olden 

 time. 





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V'^-^' .^ • j^'-yat 



The Mound of Maskh6tah, showing the Store Chambers. 



(Fmii a Photograph by Mr. W. M. Flinders Pelrie.) 



Exploration Fund, and through its instrumentality, 

 discoveries since the year 1883 have been made 

 in the Delta, of the deepest interest to all students of 

 history. 



The objects of the society, of which Sir Erasmus 

 became the first president, may be gathered from its own 

 rules : — 



" {a) To organise excavations in Egypt with a view to 

 the elucidation of the history and arts of ancient Egypt, 

 and the illustration of the Old Testament narrative, 

 so far as it has to do with Egypt and the Egyptians ; 

 -also to explore sites connected with Greek history 

 or with the antiquities of the Coptic Church. 



" {b) To publish periodically, descriptions of the 

 sites explored and excavated, and of the antiquities 

 trought to light. 



" (c) To ensure the preservation of such antiquities 

 by presenting them to museums and similar public 

 anstitutions." 



Students may bewail the ruthless burning of the books 

 of the Alexandrian Library, but here, in our own time, 

 volumes of history and contemporary records of periods 

 almost unknown to us, are being systematically consumed 

 in the kilns of the Fellahin. 



The raison d'etre of the Egypt Exploration Fund is 

 to save what, if once lost, can never be recovered. 



The Society began in 1883 by engaging the services 

 of the eminent Egyptologist, M. Naville, as an explorer. 

 The following year, Mr. ^A/'. M. Flinders Petrie, who 

 had already spent two long seasons in Egypt, and had 

 distinguished himself by the production of his masterly 

 work on " The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh," placed 

 his services at the disposal of the Committee of the Fund, 

 and went out to San — the " Tanis " of the Septuagint and 

 the Greek historians, the " Zoan " of the Bible — where for 

 five months he conducted the important excavations 

 which form the subject of his work on " Tanis," the second 

 memoir published by the Fund. The following season, 



