68 Account of the recent discoveries respecting 
I have now only to remark in conclusion, that as I have not 
‘met with a single actual measurement of the whale by any voy- 
ager or historian of respectability, ancient or modern, which is at 
all at variance with what has been advanced, excepting where 
^specimens of the Balsena Physalus have been mistaken for those 
of the Mysticetus, I presume we may conclude, that whales are 
caught of as great dimensions in the present day as at any period 
within the last two hundred years, or since the fishery began. 
Aet. XVII. — Account of the Recent Discoveries in Egypt re- 
svecting the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. Drawn up from 
^ original Letters, and other sources of information,^ and illus- 
trated with Drawings. 
'The monumental ruins of Egypt, combining in their struc- 
ture, as a kind of architectural paradox, at once colossal magni- 
tude and minute concealment, had, for ages past, afforded a 
subject of inexhaustible investigation to the learned antiqua- 
rians and enterprising travellers of Europe; but all the con- 
jectures of the former, and researches of the latter, had proved 
incompetent to the task of satisfactorily solving these material 
enigmas. The united ingenuity and labours even of the French 
philosophers and artists, who prosecuted their inquiries with the 
full assistance and protection of their military power, had not 
been able to penetrate the most interesting of these mysteries, 
or even to accomplish the mechanical removal of the most pal- 
pable obstructions. The natural spirit and sagacity of two ad- 
venturous individuals, Mr Caviglia and Mr Belzoni, aided by 
the liberality of a few private persons, and patronised particu- 
larly by Mr Salt, the British Consul at Cmro, have effected 
more in the space of a few months, than had been done in 
the course of as many preceding centuries. But, without in- 
dulging in farther preliminary reflections, we hasten to present 
a brief abstract of the operations so successfully prosecuted, and 
so ably directed by one of these gentlemen, in exploring the in- 
'Quart«rly Review, Ice. 
