390 ALEXANDRIA. 
CHAP, observation. The only place whereby admittance 
to the interior is practicable, may be found 
facing the sea, near an angle towards the north: 
it is a small aperture, made through the soft 
and sandy rock, either by burrowing animals, 
or by men for the purpose of ransacking the 
ccemetery. This aperture is barely large enough 
to admit a person upon his hands and knees'. 
Here it is not unusual to encounter jackals,^ 
escaping from the interior, when alarmed by 
any person approaching: on this account the 
guides recommend the practice of discharging 
a gun, or pistol, to prevent any sally of this 
kind. Having passed this aperture with lighted 
tapers, we arrived, by a gradual descent, at a 
square chamber, almost filled with earth : to the 
right and left of this are smaller apartments, 
chiseled in the rock : each of these contains on 
either side of it, except that of the entrance, a 
Soros for the reception of a mummy; but owing 
to the accumulation of sand in all of them, this 
part of the Catacombs cannot be examined with- 
out great difficulty. Leaving the first chamber, 
we found a second of still larger dimensions, 
having four Cryptce with Soroi, two on either 
(l) Seethe aperture marked A, in the annexed Plan of the Cata- 
coiobs. 
