prise, he had burned some sulphur for the purpose of purifying the air, and he conceived it probable that this doorway might communicate with it; an idea which, in a little time, he had the gratification of seeing realized, by discovering that the channel through the doorway opened at once upon the bottom of the well, where he found the baskets, cords, and other implements which had been left there on his recent attempt at a further excavation." This discovery was so far valuable, as it afforded a complete circulation of air along the new passage, and up the shaft of the well into the chamber, so as to obviate all danger, for the future, from the impurity of the atmosphere. Mr. Salt, after this, made the tour of the long passage, and up the shafts into the great gallery, without much inconvenience.

"The new passage did not terminate at the doorway which opened upon the bottom of the well. Continuing to the distance of twenty-three feet beyond it, in the same angle of inclination, it became narrower, and took a horizontal direction for about twenty-eight feet further, where it opened into a spacious chamber, immediately under the central point of the pyramid. This new chamber is sixty-six feet long by twenty-seven feet broad, with a flat roof, and, when first discovered, was nearly filled with loose stones and rubbish, which, with considerable labour Mr. Caviglia removed. The platform of the floor, dug out of the rock, is irregular, nearly one half of the length from the eastern or entrance end being level, and about fifteen feet from the ceiling; while in the middle it descends five feet lower, in which part there is a hollow space, bearing all the appearance of the com

mencement of a well or shaft. From hence it rises to the western end, so that at this extremity there is scarcely room between the floor and the ceiling to stand upright, the whole chamber having the appearance of an unfinished excavation." This Mr. Salt thinks, after a careful comparison of it with other subterranean chambers which have been disfigured by the combined effects of time and the rude hands of curious inquirers, may once have been highly wrought, and used, perhaps, for the performance of solemn and secret mysteries. Some Roman characters, rudely formed, had been marked with the flame of a candle on the rock, part of which having mouldered away rendered the words illegible. Mr. Salt says, he had flattered himself that this chamber would turn out to be that described by Herodotus as containing the tomb of Cheops, which was insulated by a canal from the Nile; but the want of an inlet, and its elevation of thirty feet above the level of the Nile, at its highest point, put an end to this delusive idea. He thinks, however, from an expression of Strabo, purporting that the passage from the entrance leads directly down to the chamber which contained the Ovia (the receptacle of the dead), that this new chamber was the only one known to that author. Whatever might have been the intention of this deeply-excavated chamber, no vestige of a sarcophagus could now be traced.

"On the south side of this irregularly formed or unfinished chamber, is an excavated passage, just wide and high enough for a man to creep along on his hands and knees, continuing horizontally in the rock for fifty-five feet, where it abruptly terminates.

Another passage at the east end of the chamber commences with a kind of arch, and runs about forty feet into the solid body of the pyramid." Mr. Salt also mentions another passage, noticed by Olivier, in which the names of "Paisley" and "Munro" were now found inscribed at its extremity.

These laborious exertions do not appear to have been rewarded with any new discovery of antiquities. Mr. Caviglia has, however, to a certain degree, determined one long-disputed point-namely, how far the living rock had been made available in the construction of the pyramids. "This rock, which shows itself externally at the north-eastern angle of the great pyramid, appears in the main passage, and again close to the mouth of the well; the highest projection into the body of the pyramid being about eighty feet from the level of its external base."

Much more, however, there can be no doubt, remains to be discovered within "these gloomy mansions of mystery and wonder." We have now, it is remarked, the knowledge of three distinct chambers in the great pyramid, all of which had evidently been opened by the Saracens, and perhaps, long before, by the Romans; but, for anything that is known to the contrary, there may be three hundred, and might be ten times three hundred such chambers yet undiscovered. To assist the mind to form a just idea of the immensity of the mass, let us take the great chamber of the sarcophagus, whose dimensions (it being about 35 feet long, 17 broad, and 183 high) are those of a tolerably large-sized drawing-room, which, as the solid contents of the pyramid are found to exceed 85,000,000 cubic feet, forms nearly 70 part of the

whole; so that, after leaving the contents of every second chamber solid, by way of separation, there might be three thousand seven hundred chambers, each equal in size to the sarcophagus chamber within the pyramid of Cheops. All the rooms at present discovered are to the west of the general passage, that is, in the north-west quarter of the pyramid, with the exception of the one discovered by Mr. Caviglia in the centre of its base; and till examination shall have ascertained the contrary, it may be presumed that the other three quarters have also their chambers. The insulated tomb of Cheops, the founder, if the statement furnished by Mr. Salt be correct, must be an excavation far deeper than has yet been discovered; and the channel by which the waters of the Nile could be brought into any part of the pyramid remains altogether concealed. Yet we can hardly bring ourselves to believe that no such communication ever existed. The excavated passage which leads off from the great chamber, and abruptly terminates at the end of fifty-five feet, can never have ended, originally, in a cul-de-sac, but must have had some design, and some outlet.

The Pyramid of Cephren, the second in size, is, according to Belzoni-each side of the base 684 feet, vertical height 456 feet. This pyramid does not rise from the natural level of the plateau, but out of an excavation made in the solid rock all round. The rock on which this pyramid stands is higher than that on which the great pyramid stands; so that both may appear to be on the same level. Belzoni, after very considerable labour, succeeded in opening the second pyramid, and after traversing passages similar to

those in the great pyramid, reached the main chamber, which is cut out of the solid rock. It is 46 feet 3 inches long, 16 feet 3 inches wide, and 23 feet 6 inches high. The covering is made of blocks of limestone, which, meeting in an angular point, form a roof of the same shape as the pyramid. The chamber contained a sarcophagus, formed of the finest granite, but without a single hieroglyphic. Some bones were found in it, which on examination proved to be those of an ox. An inscription on the wall, in Arabic, showed that this chamber had been entered by some Arab ruler of Egypt, who had again closed the pyramid. Belzoni also discovered another chamber in this pyramid. The style of building of the second pyramid is inferior to that of the first, and the stones used in its construction were less carefully selected, though united with nearly the same kind of cement. A considerable portion of the outer coat, or what may be termed the casing, still remains on this pyramid, which appears to have been formed by levelling or planing down the upper angle of the projecting steps, and was, as Herodotus remarks, consequently commenced from the summit. This covering, which is of compact limestone, at a distance appears to have a spotted appearance, partly produced by the dung of birds, and partly a reddish-coloured lichen, which has not been described. The ascent of this pyramid is difficult, in consequence of so much of the outer coat remaining as leaves no doubt it was the intention of the architect that these buildings, when finished, should neither be entered nor ascended.

Mr. Wilde's description of his ascent of the second pyramid in 1839 is so graphic in its detail, that we prefer giving it in his own words.