Among both the Egyptians and Peruvians the walls receded inwards, and the doors were narrower at the top than at the base. Thus we might go on through other pages, pointing out other analogies equally striking, but time will not allow; besides have we not already enumerated sufficient similitudes to indicate that the American and Egyptian races of antiquity had a co-existence, and that the one must have been in some way, direct, or indirect, an offshoot from the parent stock of the older nation? When we find two such widely separated peoples employing the same form of architecture, having a like religion, a similarity of customs, arts, sciences, manners and traditions, and each at a date of remote antiquity, it does seem wholly compatible that we should assign to each a common origin. The question may be asked, "How could the Egyptians ever have reached America by water ?" In answer we quote the historian Rollin, who states: "The Phoenician sailors in the employ of Pharoah Necho, 516 B. C., made a voyage completely around Africa, returning by the straits of Gibraltar." This, it must be remembered, was at a date long before the mariner's compass was supposed to have been known. From another writer, Gooderich, we learn that "In the tomb of Rameses the Great-1577 B. C.-is a representation of a naval combat between the Egyptians and some other people, supposed to have been Phoenicians, whose large ships were propelled by sails." Now if 1577 B. C., 500 years after the deluge, large ships propelled by sails were in existence, is there anything improbable in the supposition of a voyage having been made across the Atlantic, when a greater one was made, later on, in the circumnavigation of Africa? It is true we have no known allusion to America in Egyptian history, but it is a grounded fact that Egypt was a country of high civilization when her history began. Renan says: "It has no archaic epoch." Osborne says: "It bursts upon us in the flower of its highest perfection." Rawlinson says: "Now in Egypt it is notorious that there is no indication of an early period of savagery or bar barism. All authorities agree that, however far back we go, we find in Egypt no rude or uncivilized time out of which civilization is developed. Menes, the first king, changes the course of the Nile, makes a great reservoir, and builds the temple of Pthah at * We see Memphis. primeval state. no barbarous customs to indicate Therefore in a land like this, which was full of perfection and wisdom, when all Europe was but a land of unknown barbarism, was it not possible for her to have planted colonies across the sea, in a country fair and beautiful, with all the advantages of climate and soil, and yet have left no traces of them in her history? Such traces may have existed, together with the records of her own earliest age, for aught we know. We find her at the first dawn of history, the greatest of the great; we find her to-day the basest of the base, a living example of the truth of God's prophecy, "It shall be a base kingdom, the basest of kingdoms." (Ez. xxix chapter, 14 and 15 verses). As ran her race, so may have run that of her people in this New World. The history of Memphis, of Tadmor, of Thebes, may have been repeated alike in grandeur, alike in decay by the great cities of the American continent. Divine wrath may not have been satisfied within the bounds of the parent kingdom, but have extended itself, an unsparing Nemisis to the root and branch of all the race, and levelled them to the dust in the ruin, savagery, and desolation of to-day. Here we will leave our subject. We have endeavored to show by points of analogy, the identity of the early American races in the people of Egypt; if we have not been fulsome in detail, we trust the want of completeness will be overlooked when the brief summary contained in this paper is considered in comparison with the magnitude of the subject. During last year, the members devoted most of their time in connection with the work of the section in rearranging the fossils in the cases, and adding, where required, the missing species or families to complete, as far as possible, the fauna, as known in the different rock systems represented in our collection. Also the classifying, labelling and arranging of the large number of fossils added during the year from different sources, and particularly from Col. C. C. Grant, who visited the Island of Anticosti during the summer and there obtained a great number of specimens for our collection from the Hudson River, Anticosti group, and Post Pliocene formations. The Post Pliocene formation was not known to exist on the island until discovered by Col. Grant, who collected several varieties of the Mya. The section secured donations from the following: Mr. Drake, on behalf of the estate of the late Mr. W. Murray; C. N. Bell, F. R. G. S., Winnipeg; and from the late Rev. Dr. Kemp (see appended list.) List of Specimens presented by Col. C. C. Grant to the Museum of the Hamilton Association, 1885. No. Name. Group. Locality. District. 1 Palaeophyllum divasicaus... Hudson River Miamisburg Ohio I Stellopora Anthracoidea.... 66 Lockland 66 66 Miamisburg I Ambonychia Costata (variety) 1 Clyclonema bilex.... I Crania Scalosa.. I Bellerophon bilobatus. I Murchonia belicincta.. I Modiopsis concentrica.. I Strophomena plano convexa I Streptorynchus planaris... I Allarisma regularis.. 3 Athyris Subtilita.. I Chaetetes Milipora.. I Productus Coolatus. No. Name. Group Locality. District. 5 Chonetes mesaloba.. 3 Beatreacea (varieties).. 2 Slabs, with numerous specimens of Diplograptus pristis... 1 Graptolites Clintonensis.. I Bellerophon bilobatus. 3 Camerella Ops.. 2 Athyris umbonata.. I Orthoceras Lamarki.. 66 |