stones having fallen down on each side, which form a high mound towards the middle of the base. The corners are pretty clear, where the foundation is readily discovered, particularly at the north-west angle; but it is impossible to see straight along the line of the base on account of these heaps of rubbish. Hence, as has been already suggested, the difficulty of making an exact measurement, and the frequent disagreement of the results; it being impracticable, without removing the sand and fallen stones, to run a straight line all the way in contact with the building. Dr. Richardson paced one side, at a little distance from the wall, and found it two hundred and forty-two steps; whence he conjectures that the extent of seven hundred feet, usually assigned to it, is not far from the truth." The accuracy of the observations of Herodotus, are thus established in nearly every case, where he reports what lay within his own personal cognizance, but it is otherwise when he reports information derived from the priests, or other second hand authorities. "The entrance into this Pyramid is on the north side, nearly in the centre, and about an equal distance from each angle; being, at the same time, elevated about thirty feet above the base, probably that it might be more difficult for a conqueror to discover it, and less liable to be blocked up with sand. The ascent to it is over a heap of stones and rubbish that have either fallen from the Pyramid, or been forced out and thrown down in the various efforts made at successive periods to find a passage into the interior. "After advancing nearly a hundred feet into the entrance, which slopes downward at an angle of about twenty-six degrees, the explorer finds an opening on the right hand, which conducts him up an inclined plane to the queen's chamber, as travellers have agreed to call it,—an apartment seventeen feet long, fourteen feet wide, and twelve feet high, to the point on which the roof is suspended. Ascending a similar passage, but somewhat steeper than the first, he perceives another chamber of larger dimensions, being thirty-seven feet two inches long, seventeen feet two inches wide, and about twenty feet in height." This is denominated, though on no very definite authority, the king's chamber, and it will be seen that the names conferred on those more recently discovered are merely convenient and arbitrary terms. Towards the west end of the king's chamber stands the sarcophagus, which likewise consists of red granite highly polished, but without either sculpture or hieroglyphs. Its length is seven feet six inches, while the depth and width are each three feet three inches. There is no lid, nor was any thing found in it on gaining an entrance, except a few fragments of the stone with which the chamber is decorated. "As this room does not reach beyond the centre of the pyramid, it has been suggested that there are other passages leading to other chambers in communication with it; the entrance to which, it is thought likely, would be found by removing some of the granite slabs which serve as wainscoting to the walls. To present to the eye a uniform surface in the interior of an apartment was one of the devices usually employed by an architect in old times when he wished to conceal from an ordinary observer the approach to a secret retreat,-reserving to himself and his employer the knowledge of the particular stone which covered the important orifice, as well as the means of obtaining a ready access. "A third chamber, still higher in the body of the pyramid than either of the two just mentioned, was discovered by Mr. Davison, who, about sixty years ago, was British consul at Cairo. Having on one of his visits observed a hole in the top of the gallery, he resolved to ascertain the object of it, and whether it led to any apartment which had not yet been described. He was able to creep in, though with much difficulty, and when he had ad vanced a little way, he discovered what he supposed to be the end of the approach. His surprise was great, when he reached it, to find to the right a straight passage into a long, broad, but low place, which he knew, as well by the length as the direction of the entry he had come in at, to be immediately above the large room. The stones of granite which are at the top of the latter form the bottom of this, but are uneven, being of unequal thickness. The room is four feet longer than the one beneath; in the latter you see only seven stones, and a half of one, on each side of them; but in that above, the nine are entire, the two halves resting on the wall at each end. The breadth is equal with that of the room below The covering of this, as of the other, is beautiful granite, but it is composed of eight stones instead of nine, the number in the lower room." In the year 1836, Colonel Howard Vyse, an intelligent and wealthy British officer, undertook at his own expense to investigate the secrets of the Pyramids. With the most persevering enthusiasm he obtained a firman from the Pasha empowering him to make the necessary excavations, and was speedily at work with some hundreds of Arab labourers, men, women, and children, digging, carrying sand and rubbish, or hewing passages through the solid masonry of the vast structures. The fruits of his undertaking are published in two large and costly volumes, furnishing most minute details of many interesting disclosures effected by his zealous labours. The results of these successive investigations into the structure of the great Pyramid, are that, above the king's chamber, and only separated from it by the huge masses of stone forming its roof, is the chamber discovered by Davison, and bearing his name. Immediately above this Colonel Vyse effected an entrance, with great labour into another apartment to which he gave the name of Wellington's chamber; another discovered above this he styled Nel son's chamber, a third, in compliment to a friend, Lady Arbuthnot's chamber; and a fourth, Campbell's chamber, after the resident British Consul. All these, however, including the first discovered by Davidson, are mere chambers of construction, or spaces left in the mass of the pyramid, lessening the superincumbent weight over the roof of the king's chamber. No entrance was found to any of them, or had ever been intended by the builders of the Pyramid, and they were only reached by quarrying a passage through the solid masonry, which had lasted for so many thousand years, no more affected by the lapse of centuries, than the rocky cliffs of the Andes. But a still more interesting discovery was made in the third pyramid. Into this also Colonel Vyse effected an entrance, and in the central sepulchral chamber he found a remarkably beautiful sarcophagus, covered with sculpture. It had been opened, its lid broken, and it contents rifled. The remains of rude Arabic inscriptions on the walls, left no room to doubt that the same early Mohammedan searchers had opened it as well as the larger pyramid. As the sarcophagus would have been speedily destroyed had it been left in the pyramid, Colonel Vyse resolved to send it to the British Museum. With great labour and difficulty it was got out of the subterranean chamber, and at length brought into daylight. Considering that it weighed nearly three tons, and had to be brought through steep, narrow, and greatly encumbered passages, where no light could be had but by means of torches, its removal was not the least arduous of the undertakings involved in the opening of the pyramids. It was, however, at last safely hauled out, and placed on a carriage constructed for the purpose. A sort of railway of planks had to be laid, over which it was drawn across the rocks and sand to the Colonel's encampment. There it was cased in strong timbers, so as to secure it from injury, and by the like laborious process it was despatched once more on its journey, and at length reached Alexandria in safety. It was embarked there in the autumn of 1838, on board a merchant-ship, safe, as it was presumed, for its final destination in the British Museum. On the 12th of October in the same year, the vessel departed from Leghorn, where she had touched in her homeward voyage, and this was the last account ever obtained of her or her crew. It is supposed that the ship was wrecked off Carthagena, as some fragments of a vessel believed to be parts of her, were picked up near that port, but nothing definite was learned, or ever will be now, concerning her fate. The remarkable and beautiful relic of Egyptian art, which had lain unharmed for ages in its original shrine, was only laboriously brought forth to the light to be consigned for ever to the depths of the sea, where lie so many strange treasures, and some more precious than these relics of ancient art. One of our sweetest poetesses thus touches on the thoughts which such an incident suggests, in her "Treasures of the Sea :" What hidest thou in thy treasure-caves and cells? We ask not such from thee. Yet more, the Depths have more!-What wealth untold, Thou hast the starry gems, the burning gold, Won from ten thousand royal Argosies. Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful Main! Earth claims not these again! Yet more, the Depths have more!--Thy waves have rolled Above the cities of a world gone by! Sand hath filled up the palaces of old, Sea-weed o'ergrown the halls of revelry! Dash o'er them, Ocean! in thy scornful play, Man yields them to decay! M |