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count universally on being accepted by the clergy ! The 
Archdeacon observes, “ The thickness of the Nile mud is very 
different in the several excavations in the same neighbourhood."* 
At spots 3,100, 784, and 1,215 yards from the obelisk at 
Heliopolis, and having different bearings from it, the thick- 
nesses were found to vary from less than 7 feet to upwards of 
14 feet ! The precise measurements he quotes are 9*92, 13’ 25, 
14*25, 14*8, and 6*67 feet, and they are taken from Mr. Leonard 
Horner's memoir in the Philosophical Transactions for 1855, 
pp. 132-136. In the borings made westward from Heliopolis 
towards the centre of the valley the depth increased, and the 
excavations were made on a pretty large scale up to depths 
of 16 and even 24 feet; beyond that they were more literally 
“ borings," and the mud was found to be 60 feet deep near 
the centre of the valley. The width of this deepest part I 
do not know ; but I have cited enough, I think, to show that 
— as might have been supposed — the basin of the Nile valley 
is quite irregular in its surface, and slopes gradually on each 
side towards the centre or channel of the river. It must be 
evident therefore that if we take off 15 feet 10 inches deep of 
mud all along the upper surface, we must very greatly reduce 
the width of the valley from what it now is. But we must do 
this if we would know what it was like 2,000 b.c. The 
valley must then be narrowed at the edge near Heliopolis by 
some two or perhaps three miles, for no sounding within 3,100 
yards of that city was deeper than 14J feet, and there the 
valley is very flat, just as it is described by Herodotus. We 
must correspondingly take off some two or three miles from 
the opposite or western side ; and this will reduce the expanse 
of the valley at Heliopolis, or eight miles above the Delta 
from its present 16 miles to 10 or 12. Of course as the 
valley narrows towards Memphis it may be deeper and less 
shelving at its sides, and the clearing of 15^ feet of the upper 
mud will make comparatively less difference there in the width 
of the valley. But still the difference will be very great. 
Let us now consider another result that follows from the 
facts we are dealing with. If 5 inches deep of mud are now 
ascertained to be deposited in a century over the whole expanse 
of the Nile valley as it now is, when 16 miles wide at Helio- 
polis ; then supposing the river to bring down no more mud 
now than it did when its width there was only ten or twelve 
miles ; let me ask, Are we to be visited with the dreadful 
penalty of being considered not “ scientific," if we say that, 
therefore, the deposit must have been much greater in depth 
* Scripture and Science not at Variance. Fifth edition, p. 138 . 
