ME.  HOENEE  ON  THE  ALLUVIAL  LAND  OF  EGYPT. 
65 
maps  on  a large  scale,  and  many  drawings,  amounting  altogether  to  a very  considerable 
sum,  have  been,  with  great  liberality,  defrayed  by  the  Egyptian  Government. 
Nature  of  the  Alluvial  Soils. 
In  the  first  part  of  this  memoir  I have  entered  fully  into  the  nature  of  the  sohd 
matter  held  in  suspension  in  the  inundation  water,  and  deposited  on  the  land,  from  the 
samples  then  in  my  possession.  I have  found  no  essential  difierence  between  them  and 
the  samples  I have  since  received  from  the  later  excavations  and  borings.  There  is  very 
httle  variety  throughout  the  whole  valley  from  Memphis  to  the  sea ; an  argillaceous 
eai’th  or  loam  of  difierent  shades  of  colour,  black,  grey  and  brown,  more  or  less  mixed 
with  fine  sand,  constitutes  the  chief  part,  often  associated  with  quartzose  sand  of  different 
degrees  of  coarseness,  and  of  various  shades  of  colour.  This  coarser  sand  is  for  the  most 
part  blown  into  the  valley  by  violent  winds  from  the  deserts  on  both  sides. 
THE  EECENT  EESEAECHES  IN  THE  MEMPHIS  DISTEICT. 
I intimated  to  Hekektax  Bey  my  wish  that  the  first  object  of  his  attention  should  be, 
to  sink  a shaft  close  to  the  colossal  statue  at  Metrahenny.  This  statue,  which  had  fallen 
or  been  thrown  down  from  its  pedestal,  is  said  to  have  been  discovered  by  Signor 
Caviglia,  about  thirty  years  ago.  He  had  found  some  indications  of  buried  sculpture 
between  the  modern  \illages  of  Metrahenny  and  Bedreshin,  and  on  making  an  excavation 
around  it  to  a depth  of  about  5 feet,  he  uncovered  a statue  in  its  Avhole  length.  Hero- 
dotus says*  that  Sesosteis  erected  two  statues,  each  30  cubits  high,  before  the  temple 
of  Vulcan  in  Memphis,  representing  himself  and  his  queen,  and  four  statues  of  his  sons, 
each  20  cubits  high.  The  existing  statue  has  been  proved  to  be  that  of  Eamesses  II., 
the  Sesosteis  of  the  Greeksf . Dr.  Lepsius,  in  a letter  with  which  he  has  favoured  me, 
says, — “ If  we  may  assume  that  the  Memphis  statue  represents  Eamesses  while  a young 
man,  of  which  the  absence  of  the  beard  would  not  be,  of  itself,  a decided  proof,  we 
should  then  be  justified  in  assigning  it  to  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  before 
Christ.  According  to  my  estimate,  Eamesses  Mianun  reigned  from  about  1394  to 
1328  B.c.” 
I requested  that,  in  making  the  excavation  in  this  place,  the  following  particulars 
should  be  attended  to : — 
To  ascertain  the  height  of  the  surface  of  the  ground  at  the  edge  of  Caviglia’s  exca- 
vation above  the  low  water  of  the  Nile ; 
To  search  for  the  pedestal  on  which  the  statue  had  stood ; 
To  measure  the  depth  of  soil  from  the  surface  of  the  ground  down  to  the  upper  sur- 
face of  the  pedestal,  if  found ; 
To  sink  a A'ertical  shaft  close  to  one  side  of  the  pedestal ; 
* Book  ii.  110. 
t See  a description  of  this  statue  by  J.  Bonomi,  Esq.,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of  Lite- 
rature, Second  Series,  vol.  ii.  p.  297. 
