Have we a Botanical Department to our Museum ?.. Meeting of the Association of the Alumni.. What men, what age conceived, achieved the task? Of what great thought is it the type and mask!" N speaking of the Great Pyramid, a well known lecturer on this subject has asked these questions: "When was the Great Pyramid built?" "For what purpose was it built?" By whom was it built?" We will now briefly consider the answers to these questions. From the earliest ages of history this structure has been known. There is no time within our historic periods when it was not famous. It was classed as one of "the seven wonders of the world"; and it well deserved its place at the head of the list; for the vastness of the structure, even when its design baffled all conjecture, excited the wonder and admiration of the ancients, as their historians abundantly testify. Herodotus, who wrote about Four Hundred and Fifty years before Christ, mentions having visited and examined it on the outside; but could form no idea of its age. He says that it was built in the reign of Shufu or Cheops, from whom it takes its name-The Pyramid of Cheops. Wise men of many ages have endeavored to discover the date of its building, but that has been left for men of the present century to find out. On the north side of the Pyramid there is a small entrance passage, which begins some distance above the ground and descends at a considerable angle into the interior. This passage is perfectly regular and, like all the rest of the Pyramid, is remarkable for the care and exactness shown in its masonry. It is said the stones which form the walls are so closely fitted together that even after all the ages that they have remained in this position, it is impossible to slip a knife-blade between them. In 1839 Sir John Herschel supposed that this long tubular passage, from its position and the inclination it makes with the base, was meant to be levelled at a polar star; but finding that at that time there was no star of importance in that part of the heavens to which it pointed, he began to count back to see if there ever was a time when a prominent star was in such a position, that it could look directly down this long tube. By means of the processional cycle he found, that at one time the North Star had been in exactly this position, and that star was Alpha Draconis; and at the same time Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, was on the meridian above. He had only to find then how long it had been since Alpha Draconis had occupied this position. By astronomical calculations he found that it was in 2170 B. C. This is now supposed to be the date of the building of the Great Pyramid, which makes it more than 4,000 years old-older by far than any other piece of man's work which is now standing! It may look like assuming too much to say that this tube was made to point to Alpha Draconis, but this date coincides with that given to the Great Pyramid by other methods of computation. This also agrees with the tradition which Herodotus gives; for the best chro nologists say that Cheops was the ruling monarch of Egypt at that time. Let us now see for what purpose this immense structure was reared; and there must certainly have been a reason for erecting such a pillar as this, at the same time the oldest, the tallest and the most remarkable to be found any where in the world. The ancients believed it to have been intended for a treasurehouse or a royal tomb; but there was no known entrance by which they could explore the interior of this massive structure, which might be, for aught they knew, solid masonry from its broad base to its lofty apex. In the ninth century, however, a Mohammedan Caliph, instigated by the hope of finding valuable treasures, forced an entrance into it with great labor and expense, cutting a rough passage through the heavy masonry of huge stones. In doing so he came upon, and for the first time disclosed the tubular passage that enters from the northern face, and which had been carefully sealed up at the time of its building. But he found no treasures within; and so bitter was the disappointment of his subjects at this fruitless result of their labor, that it was with difficulty he prevented them from breaking out into open rebellion. The theory that it was built as a royal tomb has also been long exploded. Many of the other pyramids of Egypt were built in imitation of this and were used as sepulchres. But in all of them we find hieroglyphic writings, whilst in this there is not one word written. Nor is there any other sign of its having been used as a tomb. To give a minute and full description of the Pyramid would be out of place and useless, but it may be well here to mention a few of the most important points in regard to its interior. There is first the entrance passage, just mentioned, which begins some distance up on the northern side of the Pyramid and enters the solid masonry, descending at a considerable angle, and continues its downward course until it comes to the "bottomless pit," an unfinished chamber in the rock a hundred feet below the base of the Pyramid and directly under its centre. Just before this passage way reaches the base, there is another passage of the same size, which starts from this one in an upward direction, rising at the same angle at which the first descended. This opens suddenly into a high, long and beautifully finished apartment, whose floor line is continuous with that of the passage of ascent to it, and which is called the Grand Gallery, being seven times as high as the passage which leads to it. This Gallery terminates, as abruptly as it began, against a wall, through which there is another passage way, smaller than any of the others, which leads into the King's Chamber, the highest and largest known room in the edifice. Here is the only piece of furniture to be found any where in the whole Pyramid, the celebrated granite Coffer, a large, lidless box, cut from a single block of stone. Above this room are what are called "the chambers of construction," indicating how the builders arranged to keep the weight of the superincumbent mass of stone from crushing in the ceiling of the King's Chamber, which ceiling consists of nine powerful blocks of granite, stretching from side to side. Directly under the Grand Gallery, and running in the same direction as all the other passages, from north to south, there is a horizontal passage which starts on a level with the entrance of the Grand Gallery and leads to the Queen's Chamber, another large room, but which is not nearly so large as the King's Chamber. As the King's Chamber stands on the fiftieth course of masonry, so the Queen's Chamber stands on the twentyfifth. This room is entirely destitute of furniture, and instead of its walls being all smooth, as are the walls of the King's Chamber, there is in its eastern wall a niche twenty-five inches wide and fifteen feet high, being composed of five stories or divisions. A short distance from the beginning of the Grand Gallery there is a rough opening in the floor, which descends irreġularly down through the masonry and the solid rock, until it reaches the "bottomless pit." This rugged, descending passage is called the "well," and is the only rough, irregular piece of work in the whole structure. From a careful investigation of the position and measure |