28 
worked by the Egyptians during many centuries, beginning 
with their earliest dynasties. The following is the account 
given of their discovery :—The turquoises occur in a bed of 
quartzose sandstone in Wadi Sidreh, and Wadi Maghara, in 
veins running for the most part N. and S. They were worked, 
according to the evidence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on 
the rock, by the Egyptians, from the third to the thirteenth 
of the dynasties of Manetho. In and around the w^orkings are 
still the tools with which they were carried on. Innumerable 
splinters of flint with their points blunted and rounded by use; 
stone hammers, some of which are broken, and round pebbles 
with a concavity on either side, caused by the friction of the 
thumb and finger charged with particles of sand, and segments 
of small wooden cylinders lie together. The flint flakes exactly 
coincide with the grooves in the rock made in the excavation, 
and evidently have been blunted by such use. The fragments 
of wooden cylinders are believed by Mr. Bauerman to have 
been portions of the sockets into which the flakes were fitted. 
The round pebbles were probably used for driving the rude 
chisel, formed by the flint inserted in the wooden socket, while 
the large stone hammers were used for breaking up the rock. 
There was no evidence that metal of any kind was used in the 
work.” Mr. Bauerman thinks that the hieroglyphical inscrip¬ 
tions also were executed by means of flint implements. This 
discovery is certainly of great importance in connection with 
the history of Egyptian civilization, and the general question 
of the successive use of stone and metal implements. 
March 1st.— Dr. Procter read a Paper On the Relations 
of the Atlantic Deposits to the Cretaceous Beds.” In the year 
1864, Mr. Sars, jun., in the capacity of one of the commissioners 
of Fisheries in the service of the Swedish Government, had an 
opportunity of dredging 300 fathoms in depth within the Arctic 
circle ofi* the Lofibden Isles. Instead of finding, as might have 
been expected from the anticipations of Prof. E. Forbes, that the 
bottom of the sea was barren at these depths, multitudinous 
forms of the highest interest, both from their biological and 
geological relations, and many of them new to science, were 
