VII. 
ALEXANDRIA. 349 
Hamilion, who participated the labour, has since chap. 
pubhshed an account of the transaction : but the 
person to whom the hterary world has been 
exclusively indebted for Jirst making known tlie 
actual existence of the Inscription, after its sup- 
posed disappearance, has never yet been men- 
tioned as the discoverer of it, in any of the 
publications that have appeared upon the sub- 
ject. At the time of our visit, it was considered 
not merely as illegible, but altogether as lost ; 
neither Mr. Hamilton, nor the author, nor any 
other individual of our party, being able to 
discern even the part of the pedestal where it 
had been inscribed. This may serve to explain 
the difficulty which aften\'ards attended its 
recovery, when a whole day was frequently 
required for the purpose of obtaining a single 
letter. Mr. Hamilion arrived in Alexandria, as 
it has been related by him % after the Inscription 
had been found, and the undertaking for copy- 
ing it had been begun. He himself assisted in 
nuking a facsimile of it ; and it was he, as was 
before stated, who observed the letters which 
read before the Institute. " It is greatly to be regretted, " says 
Nmry, " that an inscription formerly placed on one of the sides of 
the pedestal should be no longer legible." 
(4) ^gyptiacfi, p. 403. Lond. lf?09. 
