THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
231 
1842.] 
grain, are immensely numerous. They seem to have been all petrified standing, 
and then fallen. The subject, however, requires a much more copious description 
than I can give at present, even if I possessed, which I am sorry to say I do not, 
the requisite geological knowledge. 
No. 12.—One piece, being the trunk of a desert shrub, which has undergone a 
curious process of transition or petrifaction, being turned into sand. I picked it 
out with others where they had grown and were still in a vertical position, from the 
second cataract, Nubia. The same shrub was growing 5 wild’ in t-hip immediate vi¬ 
cinity, and I infer the transition to be recent and one^opstanthrgoing,on there. 
No. 13.—Three pieces sculptured limestone, fragm£nt| foimo’mSl.839, by Per- 
ring, in an ineffectual attempt to penetrate into the s^ji^burned b^ick pyramid of 
Dashoor, Memphite Necropolis. They formed p’a'r? of b, hott^atfterhd monolith 
sanctuary in the basement of the pyramid, and aref.amongst the $ldest pieces of 
sculpture in Egypt. The date of this pyramid Is 't^rowfM3&£k iifto the niglit-mf 
early times, but the discovery of these fragments proVed tvyo things: 1st*.; That 
hieroglyphic writing was in use at the epoch of this pyramid ;*a$WH hat ^ul^, the 
style of sculpture was correct and good, as also painting^.. This pyramid, belongs 
to that remote period to which the rest are known'to'appertain, i; e'. ages before 
2000 B. C. I got them on the spot. ; . ^ v \ . » 5 
No. 14.—Petrified shells and bones from various parts of Egyptian hills and 
valleys, but chiefly (and especially the oysters and bones) from the valley of the 
wanderings “ Wady et Tyh,” between Cairo and the Red Sea, Eastern desert. 
N. B. In offering the above fragments of monuments to the National Institution, 
it is necessary for me, who have reprobated so fiercely the habits of travellers in 
chipping Egyptian ruins to obtain specimens, to state that all these pieces were 
picked up from the ground, and were not chipped off by me. While their interest 
may perhaps be enhanced by the associations connected with the monuments of 
which they formed part, I only offer them to the National Institution as specimens 
of Egyptian geology. ^ ^ ^ . 
Stones .—Each having (i. e. accompanied by) the name oflocality. ""From Iladjan 
Silsilis, Mount Sinai, Wady Wurseyt, Gebel, opposite Manfalqot, Alabaster frag¬ 
ment from tombs of Memphis, Grotto at Gibraltar, Valley of tile Wanderings Be* 
nihassan, Mount Sinai, Wady Menhale, Thebes, Desert Sinai, Ramlieych, Valley 
of Wanderings, Ruins of Sais, Mount Horeb, Ancient Granite’-Sluices, Carrtil of 
Sesostris between Red Sea and Nile, Suez, Basaltic Rock, be,d>o.f second cataract 
Nubia, Alabaster from quarry at Psinanla, Tel-el-Amarna. 
One Nubian basket work tray or dinner table, Aswan. 
One piece of a beautiful mummy case I found the Arabs aboiit'to’ burin at Sac- 
cara. I was not in time to save the rest, beyond half the cover. 
One dromedary riding stick, Bisharree Desert, Arabs, “ BlQimnyes*” (?) Nubia. 
Sacred ram’s horns, tombs of Memphis. 
One ostrich egg, Bisharree Desert, Nubia. : . \ 
One mummied crocodile, and a bundie of small mummied idem, brought out by me 
from the pit at “ Margarat-es-Samoon,” opposite Manfaloot. ^'I’his extraordinary 
cavern runs along at about twenty feet below the surface to a distance I measured 
four hundred and thirty-eight feet. For an account^of the-fdai^gers, infaginary as 
far as my experience goes, save of fire , see L&gh’s travels, St. John’s Egypt and 
Mohammed Ali, and letters from the Old World,.by a lady;.qf -New York. At the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia there are human skulls, &c., 
taken from the same spot. 
One black leopard skin, from Abyssinia. It is in a wretched condition now 
from moths, and when I got it it had served as a cover for a dromedary saddle in 
a journey from Gondar to Khartoom and Cairo. The animal is very rare, never has 
been alive in Europe. Few skins have reached Europe. George IV had a pelisse 
of these skins sent him by the Ras of Abyssinia, through Lord Valentia ; two others 
were brought to Europe by the celebrated Riippel. These are ali I have heard of. 
In Abyssinia only the Royal Family dare wear them. It was from one of these last 
the skin now sent was procured in exchange for a gun. 
Two sticks cut from trees in the Convent Garden, Mount Sinai. 
One stick taken by me from the tomb of “ Sheykh Ilencdic,” salt lakes, isthmus 
Suez. 
Twelve ancient porcelain idols, tombs of Memphis. 
One piece, part of an ancient wooden sword, Memphis. 
