Gabb, Thomas: Finis pyramidis or Disquisitions concerning the antiquity and scientific end of the great pyramid of Giza, or ancient Memphis, in Egypt, and of the first standard of linear measure (Retford, 1806)

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perpendicularly over the centre of the base or areay
when the flat at top is imagined to be perfectly pyra«
midical, by the continuation of the four triangular sides»
until they terminate in a point, which will be called, in
this discussion, the apex of the Pyramid?

The latest account of the admeasurement of the
Pyramid by the French, that has fallen to my lot to pe-
ruse, is that given by Sir Robert Wilson, who, more like
the historian than the amateur, amuses his readers, by
giving them an unrestrained free sketch of that object,
which engrossed the scientific attention and scrutiny of
the French Savants : and to assist his reader's memory,
as it should seem, he reports the result of their studious
calculations and accurate measurements, in familiar
round numbers, saying,

" The height of the largest Pyramid is, at last, de-
finitively ascertained by the French to be 600 feet, the
length of it's base 700 feet." I presume he means French
feet: butwhether French or English feet, the inaccuracy
of the statement is evident from the experiment of the
inclosed Chest, measured by several learned men, who
agree in their statements of it's length, viz, equal 4 cu-
bits of .Cairo ; and from the French themselves we learn,
that it is one hundreth part of the length of the base:
which length, in English feet, is 729.6; and this reduced
to French pied de Roy, or Paris feet, is 683.146 ,&c.
Hence is seen that the round number 700 feet, whether
French or English, accords not with the ascertained true
measure of the length. And it is fair to conclude, that
the round number 600 feet of height, is quite as incorrect
for the true height, as the 700 are for the trye length.

Now to assume the 600 as French feet, which js
most probably intended by Sir Robert, and reduce thern

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