
680 The American Naturalist. [July, 
the pyramid.’ ‘‘In the fagenoon of Wednesday,” continues Mr, 
Goodyear, ‘‘a workman came to say that an opening had been found 
under the platform on the side next the pyramid. This proved to be 
the top of a doorway choked by detritus, through which Mr. Petrie 
crawled into an interior of three chambers, and discovered the 
inscriptions mentioned. I had the pleasure of following him. Mr. 
Petrie thought the apartments had not been previously entered for 
about three thousand years,—that is to say, that the rubbish fallen 
from the pyramid had choked the entrance about three thousand years 
after construction. A friend who was with me noticed on the floor 
some dried wisps of papyrus, a plant now extinct in Egypt. The 
chambers thus far found are so filled that one cannot stand erect in 
them, and a door at the endjof the third chamber is blocked by large 
stones. Over all lies an enormous mass of detritus, whose removal by 
` Arab diggers is now progress. I had the pleasure next day of carrying 
the news of Mr. Petrie’s find to the gentlemen of the Egypt Explora- 
tion Fund at Beni-Hassan, and of witnessing their unaffected delight 
over it.” —Scientific American, May 23d, 1891. 

