196 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vii. 



of the harbour. We then returned to inspect the 

 artificial stone-work. M. de Lesseps with an 

 innocent air brought me a piece of stone with 

 some shells embedded in it and asked me what 

 formation I thought it belonged to. I said it 

 was the most recent I had seen, and from the 

 fossils evidently new to geology. On the whole, 

 I should describe it as la formation Lessepsienne, 

 which pleased the old gentleman amazingly ; 

 he would have it repeated several times over 

 before we got to our quarters. . . . Fowler and I 

 are installed in a neat ground-floor bedroom, still 

 as guests of the Viceroy ; and I have scribbled 

 this while waiting for my friend to go to dinner, 

 having dressed quicker than he.' 



The Professor makes notes of the fossils, &c, 

 which he finds, and describes all that he sees of 

 interest until he arrives at Cairo. ' At the hotel,' 

 he says, ' no bells, no nothing, a black Nubian boy 

 stays all day and all night (seemingly) in one 

 corner, and obeys the clapping of your hands to 

 light your candles or call the waiter.' 



1 February i. — After a dawdling breakfast the 

 Duke drove up to our hotel, and we were driven 

 to the Musee d'Antiquites. Here we were 

 joined by Mariette Bey (the Director) and 

 Hekekiah Bey, from both of whom I got a 

 clearer notion of the dynasties and ethnology of 

 this country than I have ever yet had.' 



Owen then minutely describes the entry of 



