xxxiv. New Zealand Institute. 
the strength of this conjecture, M. Naville, in February last, com- 
menced excavations at Tel-El-Maskutah; and before he had been 
many weeks at work he had laid bare a vast enclosure, about 200 
metres square, divided into square chambers built of large bricks, 
principally made without straw ; all the chambers were without doors, 
and were evidently intended an for dwelling-rooms, but for store- 
houses or granaries. This was in fact the Temple of Tum, and the 
monuments found in the enclosures point clearly to its having been 
founded by Rameses II., although added to in the 22nd dynasty. 
The Egyptian city “Thuku” had already been identified with the 
Suecoth of the Bible; but now the missing link in the chain of 
identification was to be supplied. Certain inscriptions on statues 
referred to “Pe Tum in the city of Thuku," that is, “ Pithom in 
the city of Succoth;” in other words, Pithom was the name of the 
temple from which the city, which was also called Succoth, took its 
name. Thus, in the words of Mr. Stanley Lane Poole, “Not only 
do we see the actual storehouses which the children of Israel are 
related to have built, but we now know “the first station on their 
journey from Egypt to Palestine," when, as we read in the twelfth 
chapter of Exodus, they “ journeyed from Rameses to Succoth.” In 
this way, by the explorations of a party which had only been at work 
for a few weeks, the identification of Pharaoh the oppressor with 
Rameses II. has been almost established, and the authenticity of the 
biblical narrative strongly confirmed ; and every student of archeology 
will watch with the deepest interest the further investigations of those 
who have begun with so remarkable a success. 
AT TROY, 
With regard to the excavations in the Troad, however, the result 
of the latest investigations has been rather to lead us to modify con- 
clusions formerly arrived at than to add to the list of archeological 
discoveries. Until a few years ago, the site of Homer's Troy was 
disputed—some placing it on the spot now known by the name of 
Hissarlik, others at the modern Village of Bunárbashi, about six miles 
to the south, others again maintaining that Troy never had any 
existence except in the poet's imagination. Dr. Schliemann, nearly 
ten years ago, astonished the literary world by announcing that, 
having carefully examined both places, he had proved that there were 
no relics of antiquity worth mentioning at Bunárbashi, but that at 
Hissarlik he had unearthed the ruins not only of the Homeric City, 
including the Palace of King Priam, the Scean Gate, the great 
surrounding wall, and the great Tower of Ilium, but even the still 
earlier town which had been destroyed by Hercules ! 
