to give yourself so much trouble, there is no silver down in there; I swear it by Allah and my faith."

The height of the pyramid has been widely estimated. Herodotus made it equal to the length. Bryant, in 1807, wrote: "It seems at first to have been 500 feet in perpendicular height." Thevenot gave 520; Greaves, in his "Pyramidographia," 499; Perring, 4501; Vausleb, 662; Perry, 687; Lucas, 729; Niebuhr, 440; Gemelli, 520; Denon, 448. In the last-named, the French architect employed to measure in 1799, was M. Le Père, aided by Colonel Coutelle, of the Engineers. Fergusson states the present height to be 456, and Colonel Howard Vyse, 450. The inclined height, says the last authority, is 5681. The vertical height, says M. Dufeu, was never greater than it is now.

The base is practically a square. Herodotus gave the length eight plethra or 800 feet, the same as the height. But that height must have been the side of the triangle up. Transcribers may cause authors to err. Thus, he is said to have declared the third pyramid "wanting 20 feet on each side of three plethra." It should have read plus twenty. Diodorus appears to make the size 700 by 600 feet; Strabo, 652 by 600; Thevenot, 704 by 682. Pliny gave the size, 708; Grobert, 745; Perring, 746 now, but once 764; Colonel Howard Vyse accepts Perring's calculation. Sir Edmund Beckett speaks of a difference of 4 feet in 761 "between the measure made by highly competent persons." He deems the 761 of Sir H. James as "the best measure to adopt." This includes the casing stones at the base. The Royal Engineers, on their return from the Sinai survey, got these results: east side, 9,129.5 inches; north, 9,127.5 inches; west, 9121 inches;

south, 9,140.5; yielding an average of 7603 feet. Mr. Piazzi Smyth has chosen a mean calculation of 763.81 feet.

The corner socket was found in 1797. The French dug down through the rubbish at the north-east angle. This encastrement or large hollow socket worked in the rocks, yet quite uninjured, received the corner stone. It is an irregular square, three and a half metres by three. At the north-west corner the other socket has been discovered. The measure between, 232.747 metres, or 763-63 feet, was the base line. But Colonel Vyse's grand discovery, in 1837, of a couple of the casing stones on the parent rock, enabled us to get the more modern estimate of correctness, 764 feet. These marble blocks were of exquisite workmanship and truth of outline.

The angle of inclination in these two casing stones was first given at 51° 50'. Prof. Piazzi Smyth, assuming it 51° 51' 14.3", and the base line 763.81, obtained as the result for the perpendicular height 486.2567.

The orientation, or eastward aspect, is nearly perfect; offering a great contrast to the edifices of Thebes, &c., where the face is any way. In fact Mr. Fergusson goes so far as to say that the builders of Thebes had "no notion of orientation." It is not 5' out of the line; Mr. Piazzi Smyth makes the error but 4' 35". An earthquake, it has been conjectured, may have even caused this slight error. The angles of the sockets of the great pyramid have been given at 0, for south-east, +1 for north-east, +1 for south-west, and + 0.636 for north-west.

THE CASING OR COVERING.

Upon this subject, as upon about all subjects connected with the pyramid, there has been a difference of opinion. While

some maintain it was absolutely covered with a marble, or satin, dress, and others that it was but partially concealed by this stone drapery, not a few hold that it has never been covered at all.

A pavement has, however, been noted at the foot. Though not rectangular, it is finely fitted, for all the pyramid work was beautifully done. It is not of uniform width round, varying from twelve to thirty-three feet. The thickness is a foot and three quarters. Under the pavement was seen a fissure, filled up with small stones.

Herodotus, our earliest authority, claims an entire marble covering for the pyramid, and states that the stones were skilfully connected, none being less than thirty feet, the top being first completed. This was declared to have been carried off by Salah-e-Deen, the Saladin of history, of the time of our Richard the First, for the adornment of his new city and citadel at Cairo. The magnificent Mosque of Hassan, one of the most remarkably beautiful religious edifices in the world, so impressive of pious sentiment, is said to have been constructed of this marble.

M. Jomard recognised the story of the revêtement or covering, and Grobert discussed the retention by notches or grooves. Maillet, a very frequent visitor, writing in 1692, believed the building had been closed; saying, "I concluded that the pyramid had been really covered and lined." Pococke, in 1743, has thus named the subject:-"It is thought that this, as well as the other pyramids, was cased with a finer stone on the outside, because it is said that not only the mortar has been seen in which the stones were fixed, but also some pieces of white marble sticking to the mortar, which they think were left on

their taking away the stone for some other use." Still, the worthy traveller was puzzled to think how such smooth covering could be clambered over; for, he adds, "Pliny mentions a very extraordinary thing with regard to these pyramids, and that is, that some men were so very adroit that they could go up to the top of them."

The second pyramid has certainly a cap of marble left, and that has been ascended by the athletic and nimble Gizeh Arabs. The third pyramid was covered with granite, so toughly put together that Melic-aliziz, in 1196, could not succeed in stealing it. But Mehemet Ali did get some of the marble casing of a Dashoor pyramid. Belzoni found part of the coat of the smallest of the Gizeh structures beneath the rubbish.

The stones found by Col. Howard Vyse were both casing ones. The joints were as thin as paper. The block was of trapezoid form; the base being 8 feet 3 inches, the perpendicular side 4 feet 11 inches; the top 4 feet 3 inches; and the slanting side, 6 feet 3 inches. The material came from the quarry of Mokattan, beyond Cairo, and is commonly known as swine-stone, or stinkstone, from the odour proceeding from this marble when struck; but few fossils have been detected. Perring observed the smell at the time of discovery. Broken in fragments, for relics, where are now these stones ?

Count Caviglia, the pyramid enthusiast, picked up pieces of the casing on the eastern side in the débris. Mr. Agnew found sundry pieces among broken stones on the western sides. "The discovery of these portions of the lubricated face of the great pyramid," he observes, "must remove any doubt of its having been finished, could such doubt ever exist." He regards the thing as settled, that the passages were effectually

blocked, and the outside was covered; it was intended that the pyramid should be closed for ever.

Sir Edmund Beckett points out another object served by the casing. "The lowest course of casing stones," he remarks, "had a square or upright plinth as high as the pavement, which was laid for a considerable width all round the building, and such was the precision of the building, that this pavement was varied in thickness at the rate of about an inch in 100 feet, to make it absolutely level, which the rock was not.”

But M. Dufeu doubts the story of the revêtement. He could not deny that Colonel Vyse had found two casing stones, though these were, said he, " a débris of a valence put round it to guard it from the ravages of time," and not ascending any height. He quotes from M. Letronne, that "the first, perhaps also the second, step of the lining formed a sort of valence, like the pedestals of obelisks." He knew that his countryman, Jomard, had pronounced with Herodotus, but for all that, Dufeu declares, "in spite of the report of Herodotus, the historians of antiquity, and the opinion of the remarkable savant (Jomard) just cited, the great pyramid has never been covered."

He is not wanting in arguments. Such a casing would destroy the teaching of the 202 steps, so important to the learned Frenchman's scientific theory, that is elsewhere described. It

would have been absurd for Saladin to pull off such a casing, when he could get the same kind of stone at one-tenth the distance from Cairo. Before he could use such marble prisms, so uniform in size, a vast amount of cutting would be required for actual use, and a great waste be incurred. To save trouble and carriage, such alteration would have doubtless been made on the spot, and "Where," cries he, "do you detect the débris

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