354 John Milne — Geological Notes on Cairo. 



with astonishment, and marvels that such an immense amount of 

 material, sufficient to build many such towns as the one from which 

 it was derived, should have all been accumulated by human agency. 



Fig. 1. — Sketch-map of the neighbourhood of Cairo. 



Similar heaps to these are to be seen marking the position of many 

 other cities, as at Memphis, where they may perhaps even exceed 

 those at Cairo. No careful investigation of these vast Refuse Mounds 

 appears at present to have been made. This Egyptian darkness 

 may, perhaps, in part be removed by an archaeological exploration 

 of their contents, pottery and coins being interpreted by the anti- 

 quary as fossils are by the palasontologist. 



On approaching these heaps from the end of the principal street 

 in Cairo, "the Mosque," a definite dip at an angle of 4° or 5°, is 

 seen towards the S.W. along a line about fifty yards in length. 



Behind some limekilns at this point, about twenty-five feet above 

 the base of the heap, there is a cutting in the side of the slope, about 

 thirty feet in length and ten feet in height. The materials in 

 this exposure are arranged in distinct layers, the chief constituents 

 being comminuted fragments of brick and mortar, black soil, broken 

 crockery, charred wood, fragments of bones, and a few land-shells, 

 {Helix), — the pieces of wood and bones marking what may be termed 

 the stratification, in which they are aided by a corresponding horizon- 



