PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VII. 
196 
of the harbour. We then returned to inspect the 
artificial stone-work. M. de Lesseps with an 
innocent air brought me a piece of stone with 
some shells embedded in it and asked me what 
formation I thought it belonged to. I said it 
was the most recent I had seen, and from the 
fossils evidently new to geology. On the whole, 
I should describe it as la for7nation Lessepsienne , 
which pleased the old gentleman amazingly ; 
he would have it repeated several times over 
before we got to our quarters. . . . Fowler and I 
are installed in a neat ground-floor bedroom, still 
as guests of the Viceroy ; and I have scribbled 
this while waiting for my friend to go to dinner, 
having dressed quicker than he.’ 
The Professor makes notes of the fossils, &c., 
which he finds, and describes all that he sees of 
interest until he arrives at Cairo. ‘ At the hotel, 
he says, ‘ no bells, no nothing, a black Nubian boy 
stays all day and all night (seemingly) in one 
corner, and obeys the clapping of your hands to 
light your candles or call the waiter.’ 
‘ Febriiary i. — After a dawdling breakfast the 
Duke drove up to our hotel, and we were driven 
to the Musee d’Antiquit^s. Here we were 
joined by Mariette Bey (the Director) and 
Hekekiah Bey, from both of whom I got a 
clearer notion of the dynasties and ethnology of 
this country than I have ever yet had.’ 
Owen then minutely describes the entry of 
