Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-05

 from the quarry at Syene to Buto, at the angle of the Nile Delta, distance of 600 miles, The remains of other monoliths weighing from 200 tons down, are now to be seen at various distances from the quarry; notably the statue of Rameses II. at Thebes, 13S miles from Syene, which weighed not less than 300 tons when perfect.
 In modern times the heaviest mass of gran ite that has been moved considerable dis tance by land and water. is the pedestal of the statue of Peter the Great. It weighed 1 500 tons and was transported from the forests of Karalia to St. Petersburg, a dis tance of eight miles, just century ago. To the French artist and engineer, Stephen Fall comet, who successfully performed this feat, I am indebted for an essential feature in the execution of my work.
 One obeIisk larger and one smaller than ours have been successfully removed from Egypt to Europe in this century, but there was one novel feature involved in my work
 From Egypt to the mouth of the Fiber, Thames and Seine, it is not necessary to lose sight of Iand and safe harbors are available at short intervals, but on voy- age from Egypt to America there is one stretch of nearly 5000 miles, where every season. The vessel that was to bring our shaft across the Atlantic must have it's own motive power, for it would have been impracticable to tow it across, and in the formation of my plans everything was sec- ondary to the successful authorization of the obelisk in such vessel in Alexandria
 The vessels used for transporting the Ro- man, French and English obelisks were all constructed in Europe, especially for the purpose. The Roman was an immense open boat. That on which the great obelisk now standing on the piazza of St. John Lateran was transported across the Mediterranean, a distance of 1900 miles, was propelled hU 200 0hoh h1xy the largest vessel of the day. The French vessel was built after the model of the time. The bow was constructed so that 1t could be removed in one piece. The English craft was an iron cylinder, pointed at both ends. It was shipped in sections to Alexandria and put together around the obe- fisk. The last two had no motive power j; they had to be lowed wherever they went. There is no record of the time consumed in the voyage of the Roman obelisk from Egypt to the mouth of the Fiber. It took five and half months for the French to reach Havre from Alexandria, after traversing distance of 3, 600 miles and touching at every point on the way, and never venturing out to sea dur ing storm. The English was four months on the voyage from Alexandria to the Thames, a distance of 5000 miles, but of these three months were spent at Ferrol, where it had been lowed after it's recovery at sea. It took us thirty-eight days Go ndAo tue voyage rom A1eXanQr1a to N6W York, distance of five thousand, three hun dred and fifty miles. (Applause.) The speaker now lucidly described and illustrated on the screen the apparatus he used to effect the object, and recounted the great difficult ties met with in getting the obelisk on ship board ready for authorization from Alexan- dria, difficulties which were indeed great ob- stacles to overcome.
 The obelisk stood near the seashore in the S11burhS 0f A1ayandria hit if had fo ha moved to the port,-the only practicable way. The nearest way to the port and the cheapest was to move it overland along the street bordering on the seashore and across the narrowest portion of the city. With this view, he planned sa iron carriage, using can- non balls for wheels, but the foreign element in Alexandria who control the streets, would not allow the obelisk to be removed through the town. The apparatus contrived was therefore useless, and a caisson had to be built by which it was foated to port This detained the speaker twice as long at Alexan- dria as he had contemplated, and doubled the cost of this part of the work.
 The route of the caisson from where the obelisk stood to the port is seven miles long, the detour being necessary on account of reefs.
 The speaker now described the mode of his successful dissmbarkation of the obel1sk at New York. From the water where landed to the site at Central Park is Il, ,OOO feet. The transportation over this distance was by 8 marine railway, so arranged that it could be laid in sections and moved ahead. The trestle work part of the work was then de- scribed.
 As before stated, the work of the removal of the French obelisk is the only parallel to ours. It occupied the French engineer nearly six years and cost the French govern ment nearly half million of dollars to con- plete the work. The total time taken for the removal of our obelisk from the time we be- gan the work in Alexandria until it was final ly erected in the park was one year and four months, and the cost including the removal of the pedestal and steps, was $1O5, ,OOO. (Applause)
 It was sixteen centuries between the first erection of the obelisk at Heliopolis and it's removal to Alexandria. It's weight is 22O tons
 The speaker now gave views of grand and beautiful temples, statues and monuments he saw on the coast eastward from the Nile to the Gulf of Sidra. He gave also instructive references geographically and historically con- sidered with regard to those parts.
 He gave view of the celebrated African Coliseum of Tisdra. It is in the form of an ellipse, the greatest diameter at the base being 43O feet, and the least 37O the corre- spending diameter of the arena being 24O and 18O feet. Although third in size, being smaller than that of Verona it ranks next after that of Rome in the state of preserva- ton and architectural effects. The structure consists of four tiers of arches and columns, having total height of nearly 100 feet. The gateways at each end and the upper tier of arches were nearly destroyed about 15O years ago, by the reigning Bey of Tunis to prevent the Coliseum being used as fortress by some of the Arab tribes in revolt against his thority.
 Of the three cities, Sabrata Oea and Leptis, 46oAf the present town derives it's name, the ruins of Leptis are the most interesting.
 The speaker mentioned marble columns some thirty feet long and four feet in diame- ter. The marble is variegated in color, the green predominating, and the polished sur faces are very beautiful. There were many varieties of the granite and marble, and 8 great number of the columns and fragments of capitols lying scattered along the route from the sea to the ancient city. Many oth- CTS were alluded to. No systematic excava- tions have ever been made at Leptis but the French and English have removed from the surface many of it's most beautiful columns and interesting relics. The Church of St. Germain Des pres, in Paris, is adorned with some of the columns taken from Leptis and Admiral Smyth removed many more that are now in the Royal Gardens at Windsor.
 The speaker mentioned remarkable for tress constructed of blocks of granite, many of them ten tons in weight. It had a subter- ranean passage into which the sea now en- tered.
 From the ruins of Berenice, Gone of the five cities of the ancient Pentapolis), the modern town of Benghazi was built. The gardens of the Hesperides are believed to have been in the vicinity of Berenice. There are many ehasms. In one of the caverns miles from the town is the entrance to the cave which leads to an extensive sheet of water, believed to be identical with the river Lethe. The speaker transported boat across the desert on the backs of two don- keys, and took a sail on the famed river. It appears to run through series of chambers, on the walls of which are many curious in- scriptions. No one knows whence this sub- terranean stream comes or whence it goes
 The famous fountain of Apollo, which is- sues from rock at Cyrene, is similar to the Lethe, only smaller. On the ay-plastered sides are ancient Greek inscriptions.
 The plain on which all the cities of the Pentapois, except Cyrene, stood, is 8 nar- row strip between the sea and range of hills that borders the coast from Benghazi to Dernah. This range rises first to an elevation of about 1000 feet, where the surface forms a table land extending