foil of the feveral parts of the earth included under one zone, or the fellow zones, are everywhere nearly fimilar, fo likewife are the ftrata, the mineral and vegetable productions, not to fay the animal, including mankind; all the articles of natural and popular hiftory in these feveral zones (fuch as food, drefs, buildings, &c.) are, in good meafure, fimilar; fo that this fyftem of geography would be more homogeneous than thofe formed upon the old hypothefis, in which the writers travel from country to country without any regard to common relation.

The above is a thought, which has frequently occurred to the writer in his converfe with geographical authors, whofe abrupt tranfitions from countries fo different, in regard to all the great natural, geographical, and astronomical diftinctions, having difgutted him, he fell, many years ago, upon this expedient, as a means to prevent the inconveni

ence.

If the hint fhall be thought worthy of notice, it will certainly be a gratification to the author; if not, he will at leaft remain fafe from cenfure in his obfcurity.

TERRA INCOGNITA.

ANTIQUI.

T

HIS mummy is the first article in Dr. Grew's catalogue of the rarities of the royal fociety. He informs us that it was a prefent from Henry duke of Norfolk, and was an entire one, taken out of the royal pyramids. He then proceeds to defcribe the manner in which the feveral parts were wrapped up; but this he has not done exactly, as moft of these very parts had evidently never been opened, till the prefent examination of them, when they were found in a very different flate from that in which they are reprefented by him.

It had been greatly injured be fore it came into our hands; the head had been taken off from the body, and the wrappers with which they had been united having been deftroyed, the cavity of the thorax was found open towards the neck; and part of the upper cruft, with the clavicles, having been allo broken away, the heads of the offa bumeri prefented themfelves, covered with a thin coat of pitch.

The feet alfo had been broken off from the legs, and were fixed by wires, to the end of the wooden cafe in which the mummy lay.

The outward painted covering, which reached from the upper part of the cheft nearly to the bottom of the legs, had been removed, and fastened on again by a great number of ordinary nails, driven up to the head, into the fubftance of the mummy. This had most probably been done by thofe who had orders fome years fince to repair it; and by this, and by the manner in which they had faftened on the feet, they feem to have done their work in a moft clumfy manner.

This whole external covering of the fore part of the mummy confifted of feveral folds of broad pieces of linen cloth, made to adhere together, by fome viscous matter, which had not yet loft its property; and the whole had received an additional degree of ftrength and fubftance from the coat of paint laid on. The figures, which were not entirely defaced, were of the fame kind with those which all the writers on this fubject have described.

There were not the leaft re mains of hair or integuments on any part of the head; and fome parts of the skull were quite bare, particularly about the temporal bones, which had the natural po lifh, and appeared, in every re fpcct, like the bones of an ordi nary fkull. To other parts of the skull adhered several folds of pitched linen, which, together, were near half an inch in thicknefs; on removing them they

were

found

found to have been in actual contact with the bone; fo that the integuments must have been taken away before the wrappers were at first applied.

:

The under jaw was loft; and the fuperior maxillary, fphenoidal and ethmoidal bones were broken away; the foramen occipitale was ftopped up with pitch, with which alfo the inner part of the full was lined this feems to have been poured in at the foramen, and made to apply to the feveral parts of the infide of the skull, by turning the head in different directions; the wave of the melted pitch from fuch motion appearing very plain. The infide of the kull was in many places covered very thinly, and, in fome few, which the fluid' pitch had miffed, it was quite bare. The pitch, which stopped up the foramen occipitale, had on it the impreffion of one of the vertebra of the neck; and externally about the foramen adhered a confiderable quantity of pitch.

The outward painted covering being removed, nothing but linen fillets were to be feen; which inclofed the whole mummy.

Thefe fillets were of different breadths; the greater part about an inch and a half, thofe about the feet much broader: they were torn longitudinally; thofe few that had a felvage, having it on one fide only; the uppermoft fillets were of a degree of finenefs nearly equal to what is now fold in the hops for 2s. 4 d. per yard, under the name of long lawn; and were woven fomething after the manner of Ruffia fheeting; the fillets were of a brown colour, and in fome measure rotten. Thefe outward

fillets feemed to owe their colour to having been fleeped in fome gummy folution, as the inner ones were in pitch.

The fillets immediately under the painted covering lay in a transverse direction ; under these, which, were many double, they lay oblique diagonally from the fhoulders to the ilia. Under these the fillets were broader, fome nearly three inches, and lay longitudinally from the neck to the feet, and alfo from the shoulders down the fides, on which there was a remarkable thickness of thefe longitudinal fillets under these they were again tranfverfe, and under thefe again oblique.

The fillets in general externally did not adhere to each other; but, though pieces of a confiderable length could be taken off entire, yet (from the great age) fo tender was the texture of the cloth, that it was impoffible regularly to unroll them.

As the outward fillets were removed, thofe that next prefented themfelves had been evidently fteeped in pitch, and were, in general, coarfer, in folds, and more. irregularly laid on, as they were more diftant from the furface. The inner filleting of all was fo impregnated with pitch as to form with it one hard black brittle mafs, and had been burned nearly to a coal. On breaking this it appeared in many places as if filled with a white efflorescence, like that obfervable on the outfide of pyrites which had been expofed to the air. This efflorefcence, however, had nothing faline to the tafte; and did not diffolve in water; but inftantly disappeared on bringing it near enough to the

fire to be flightly heated; and was foluble in fpirit of wine.

In the cavity of the abdomen we found feveral fmall pieces of bone which had the appearance of dry oak, mixed with crumbled pitch; under this was found more folid pitch, which adhered to the fpine. After cutting away the mafs of cloth and pitch which covered the thorax, we found the arms had been laid ftraight down by the tides of the cheft, and the ulna and radius bent upwards, and laid with the hands across upon the breaft, the right hand being uppermoft,

The bones of the fingers were loft, but the metacarpal bones were found broken off, and fallen into the thorax.

The filleting which went round the upper part of the body, included the arms alfo; but they had evidently been firft wrapped feparately, then laid up in the position in which we found them, and the hollows which they formed filled up with pieces of pitched cloth.

In the cavity of the thorax there was also a confiderable quantity of crumbled pitch, and splinters of dry bone; and, as in the progrefs of this examination we continually found that fome of the bones did, as we laid them bare, feparate into fuch fplinters; it is very probable that this appearance is owing to the mummy's having been handled in a rough manner, and much fhaken, by the perfons who had driven it full of nails, when they were employed to repair the outfide of it.

On our first opening a way into the thorax, we imagined the ribs were deftroyed; but, upon a more accurate examination, they were found entire; but fo bedded in the

pitch, and fo black, and burned into the mafs, as to make it difficult to diftinguifh thefe very different fubftances from each other.

The bones of the fpine and of the pelvis were in the fame ftate with the ribs, only rather more burned.

There was a confiderable thicknefs of hard folid pitch lining the cavity of the thorax; this had been evidently liquified, and poured in; and retained that gloffy appearance on its furface, which is obfervable on pitch that is fuffered to cool without being difturbed.

On breaking through this hard cruft of pitch, to examine the vertebra and the ribs, the pitch which was under the cruft and nearest to the bones, was crumbly and foft; and, on being exposed to the air, grew perfectly moift in a very fhort time.

were

The lower extremities wrapped feparately in fillets, to nearly their natural fize, and then bound together, the interftices being rammed full of pitched rags.

On cutting through the fillets on the thighs, the bones were found invested with a thin coat of pitch; and the filleting was bound immediately on this.

The tibia and fibula of each leg were found alfo wrapped in the fame manner, and the bones in actual contact with the pitch: excepting in one or two places, where the pitch was fo very thin, that the cloth appeared to adhere to the bone itself.

The feet were filleted in the fame manner, being firft bound feparately, and then wrapped together. The filleting had been by fome accident rubbed off the

toes

toes of the right foot; and the nail of the great toe was found perfect; the laft joints of the bones of the leffer toes had been broken away; by which it appeared, that thefe bones had been penetrated, and their cavities quite filled with pitch. The filleting about the heel had also been broken away, and the bones of the tarfus, and fome of the metatarfal bones had fallen out, and were loft; leaving the remaining filleting like a kind of cafe.

The fillets on the left foot were perfect, except on the heel, and where they had been divided from thofe of the leg; a fmall portion of the tendo Achilles adhered to the os calcis, and fome of the ligaments to the aftragalus.

On cutting into the fillets on the fole of this foot, they were found to inclofe a bulbous root. The appearance of this was very frefh; and part of the thin fhining fkin came off with a flake of the dry brittle filleting, with which it had been bound down; it seemed to have been in contact with the flesh; the base of the root lay towards the heel.

This discovery immediately brought to mind a paffage in Prof. per Alpinus, and gave fome appearance of probability to a relation, which, as he himself infinuates, might give great reafon to doubt his veracity. Speaking of the ftone image of the fearabeus, which was found in the breaft of a mummy, he adds; Incredibile dittu, rami rorifmarini qui una cum idolo inventi fuerunt, folia ufque adeo viridia recentia vifa fuerunt, ut

ea die à planta decerpti & pofiti ap paruerint.

The fillets were removed from this foot with great care; they were much impregnated with pitch, excepting about the toes; where the feveral folds united into one mass, being cut through, yielded to the knife like a very tough wax. The toes being carefully laid bare, the nails were found perfect upon them all; fome of them retaining a reddifh hue, as if they had been painted; the fkin alfo, and even the fine fpiral lines on it, were ftill very visible on the under part of the great toe, and of the three next adjoining toes. Where the kin of the toes was deftroyed, there appeared a pitchy mafs, refembling in form the fleshy fubftance, though fomewhat fhrunk from its original bulk. The natural form of the flesh was preferved alfo on the under part of the foot, near the bafes of the toes. On the back of the toes appeared feverál of the extenfor tendons.

The root just mentioned was bound to the foot by the filleting that invested the metatarfal bones; no more of this filleting was cut away, than was juft fufficient to fhew, without removing from its place, a fubftance which had been preferved in fo extraordinary a

manner.

VOL. VIII.

N

the