818 
aware that the nummulites embedded in those mountain 
ridges had once lived in the waters of the ocean. I am not 
yon will understand endeavouring to show that there is no 
evidence that all the land of Egypt, with all its high hills as 
well as its plains, was once for a time under water. The 
testimony of Herodotus as regards the shells found upon the 
mountains is valuable, whatever we may think of his deduction, 
that “ the valley below Memphis was once a bay of the sea.” 
If masses of sea- shells had been discovered in the Nile mud, 
and in the sand which is mixed extensively with the mud, that 
might have gone far to prove the conjecture of Herodotus to 
be right ; and it would be adverse to the usual supposition 
that these layers of sand have been blown over the mountain- 
sides from the inland deserts. It would also have given 
some show of cogency to the argument of Professor Huxley, 
which at present it seems utterly to want. I say “ some show 
of cogency ” only, for here, though the evidence that no sea- 
shells are recorded as being found in the deposits, is very 
significant, their presence (at least to some slight extent) 
might be accounted for, as having been blown from the tops 
of the mountains into the valley along with the sands ; and 
therefore would not quite establish that the valley had been 
once either an arm or “ a bay of the sea.” 
Let us, however, proceed with Herodotus, and attend to 
some more of his actual facts, regarding this great valley of the 
Nile. After giving the whole length of the coast of Egypt as 
in his day 3,600 stades, he goes on : — 
“From the coast, as far as Heliopolis, inland, Egypt is Avide, being all flat, 
without water, and a swamp. But from Heliopolis upAvards Egypt is narrow, 
for on one side there is the mountain of Arabia extending from north to 
south and south-west, stretching continuously upwards to the Red Sea ; in 
which mountain are the quarries whence the stones were cut for the pyramids 
at Memphis, &c. And on that side of Egypt which borders upon Libya 
there extends another rocky mountain, covered with sand, on Avhich the 
pyramids stand,” &c. ; and a little after he says, “ Above this, Egypt again 
becomes Avide.” # 
This passage would seem to be the ancient source whence 
Professor Huxley derived the idea that some of the pyramids 
are built upon “rock and sand. ,} In Mr. Cary's English 
translation of Herodotus, published by Bohn, the words, “ a 
“ rocky mountain and covered with sand, on which the 
“ pyramids stand,” might for a moment just suggest this 
notion, which however a second moment's reflection ought to 
* Euterp. ii. 6, 7, 8. 
