342 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
solid rock of the hill, to receive the corner-stones of the exterior 
casing of the Pyramid. These sockets are easy to find and uncover, 
as I have described in “ Life and Work,” vol. i. ch. 17; but they 
cannot be fully depended on for being such, until they shall have 
been checked by comparing them with traces, such as Colonel 
Howard Yyse discovered in 1837 on the north side of the Pyramid, 
in the shape of some of the casing-stones forming the middle of 
that base-side of the Pyramid, and still in situ , or firmly attached 
to the rock, or lower pavement ; (see note to p. 325.) 
Equally therefore to test the sockets found, being the right 
sockets, and also to have the ground between them fit for employ- 
ing accurate measuring instruments upon, — must attention be paid, 
to realizing our head No. 2, at the Great Pyramid. There, indeed, 
this No. 2 becomes the most necessary beginning, and the most 
expensive part of the whole operation. For every side of the base 
is at present encumbered by such huge hills of compacted stone 
rubbish, that no accurate mensuration can be performed over them, 
and they completely hide under their substance all the fiducial traces 
of ancient workmanship which we require to get at; and without 
getting at which we cannot tell whether what we are measuring 
was once the base-side of thePyramid, or perhaps something 
else. 
If these requirements of No. 2, should on some occasion be some- 
how or other performed, then No. 3 must be put into execution 
with all the niceties, and abundance of instruments and men 
described under the same head for an ordinary trigonometrical 
survey base-line. The distance indeed to be measured would be 
much less, but the attention of intelligent and educated men would 
require to be exerted in an original manner on the marks and 
meanings left in the lower parts of the Pyramid, the pavement 
surrounding it, and the rock on which it was founded by its 
builders of 4000 years ago, — in a manner and degree never exacted 
from Ordnance officers and men when merely measuring a base-line 
in a natural plain, for purposes of modern science alone. 
Hence I am rather disposed to make the rough estimate, that if 
No. 1 at the Great Pyramid could be accomplished by an expendi- 
ture of L.10, No. 2 would require L.7000, and No. 3 L.3000 ; and 
the fully accurate mensuration of the Great Pyramid will never be 
