JAN. — MAR. 1858.] 



The Royal Society, 



255 



nearly the same aspect as the natural deposit of Nile mud. In the 

 excavation at Heliopolis crude bricks were seen to have been the 

 origin of the soil, these by visible rectangular lines chequering the 

 sides of the pit. Thi3 last appearance, however, must be a rare 

 occurrence, for the action of the inundation water softens the bricks 

 and causes them to melt, as it were, into a homogeneous mass. 



And finally, in nearly every part of the ground penetrated, arti- 

 ficial substances have been found, such as fragments and particles 

 of burnt brick and pottery, and in the area of Heliopolis and Mem- 

 phis fragments of statues and other sculptured stones. By far the 

 most interesting hind of this nature was obtained from the lowest 

 part of the boring of the sediment at the colossal statue of Barneses 

 at a depth of thirty-nine feet. The boring instrument brought up a 

 fragment of pottery, now in the author's possession. It is about 

 an inch square, and a quarter of an inch in thickness, the two sur- 

 faces being of a brick-red colour, the interior dark grey. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Horner's deductions, this fragment, having been found 

 at a depth of thirty-nine feet (if there be no fallacy in his reason- 

 ing,) must be held to be a record of the existence of man '13,375 

 years before a. d., 1858, reckoning by the calculated rate of in- 

 crease of three inches and a half of alluvium in a century — 11,517 

 years before the Christian era — and 7,625 before the beginning as- > 

 signed by Lepsius to the reign of Menos, the founder of Memphis. 

 Moreover, it proves, in his opinion, that man had already reached 

 a state of civilization, so far, at least, as to be able to fashion clay 

 into vessels, and to know how to harden it by the action of strong * 

 heat. This calculation is supported by the Chevalier Bunsen, who 

 is of opinion that the first epochs of the history of the human race 

 demand at the least a period of 20,000 years before our Era as a 

 fair starting point in the earth's history. 



An appendix to Mr. Horner's valuable paper contains, among 

 other matters, a description of the microscopic organisms in the 

 Nile sediment : and the memoir is accompanied by various plans 

 of the excavations and borings, with sections of the alluvium 

 pierced through. 



The author acknowledges with gratitude the assistance he has 



