Year: 1873

"LNs AOhGNS4. A1A hCNCA VI
: sited it.


The following narrative of a visi


to the eminence by Mr.. Wymam
Dixon, engineer, and DR.. Grant, 0
Cairo, and Of their discovery Of


very remarkable petrifed forest nea
its base, whose gigantic trees Ii,
scattered about the desert in profu


sion. has been communicated to rs b,


the former gentleman.


Leaving the pyramids behind aut
| lighted by the clear silver moonlight


we set out into the desert by tht
caravan route TO the + Faioom. leading


up solitary valley. in the rocks OF


which are cut ancient Egyptian tanks


and mummy pits. Presently we turn


off from the regular track and take


our way into the unfrequented desert.
steering straight westward for the
distant pyramidal hill. The sand of
the desert is here hard and compact.
and travelling easy; indeed with the
exception of one or two places where
the sand is soft and heavy, wheeled
carriage might drive all the way and
to most of travellers would be much
preferable to camel, or even donkey
riding.


After many hours hard riding,
we at last reach the top Of the slight
eminence and across the wide valley
in front of US is the place Of our des-
tination.


These long valleys, or "wadys,"
have much Of interest about them;
throughout may be seen the dry
water courses where the rare rain
showers carry down the sand into the
bed and leave all the little hills and
eminences covered by flints as bic as
potatoes and with surfaces so brightly
polished as to give the desert a
silvery look by moonlight. or by day
to cause the appearance of rippled
water where they reflect the sunlight.
The zoology and botany, too, Of the
desert are very interesting. There
are numbers of little 'jerboa," a
species of rat, with long hind legs
and long tail with a tuft Of hair at
its end, which hops about Ike kan
garoo. Now and then may be seen
a gazelle or two scampering off at
the unusual sight of q caravan. 4
few small birds get precarious ex-
istence and in the sky an eagle or
vulture sometimes wings its way.
The insects are few and the herbage
is extremely scant and ii is a marvel
what the animals live on. There are
here and there III the water courses
small tufts Of camel-thorn-a little
shrub not unlike a whin. another
with a coral-like growth and now
and then a handful of a tough wiry
sort Of grass, but what these again
subsist on it IS hard to say, for there
is not q shower more than once or
twice a year and for nine months
there is no dew. while the heat Of
the sand at midday in summer is over
100 degrees.


Arrived at our destination before
daybreak. we dismount from our.
camels and while the Bedouins are
unloading the baggage, We hasten as
fast as our legs, stiff with camel rid
ing, will permit, up the heaps Of
sands and fiints to the so-called Pyra-
mid, to find. on attaining it, that !; i : :
but the conical end Of a prism-shaped
hill stretching westward, and stand
ing boldly ont Of the desert plain.


Near the top the rock crops out
and appears to be species Of friable
sandstone fretted by the weather in
to curious shapes, but the actual
summit is covered with fints and
sand, and what strikes one as being
very strange. many fragments Of
petrifed wood.


Taking a general survey from this
coign of vantage. we choose the best
spot to the north of the hill to pitch
our camp, exposed to the slight
north wind which blows necessarily
here and descending its steep sides,
at the bottom are surprised to find
near the chosen spot three large stone
trees lying PROSTATE on the sand.
The largest is 81 feet in length and 3
/ feet 6 inches in diameter at its widest
end and 2 feet at its smallest; they
are branching exogenous trees, ap-
parently a species of pine, and the
one before US has the fork Of large
branch very complete.


Wandering on up the wady to the
north ofthe hill. named by us ''Kom
81 Ebashob = the hill Of wood we