Another method said to have been adopted in preparing this material, was simply that of separating the thin concentric coats, or pellicles of the plant which surrounded the stock, by means of a needle or pointed shell (on an average about twenty from each stalk), and afterwards extending them longitudinally side by side on a table, a similar layer being placed across them at right angles; in which state they were moistened with water, and while wet put under pressure, being afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun, and finally polished as in the former case, with some hard substance, such as a tooth or shell, not merely for the purpose of improving the surface, but to prevent its absorbing the ink. The saccharine matter with which the whole juice of the plant is said to have been impregnated, being usually sufficient to cause the adhesion of the strips together. So great was the importance of this manufacture at some periods, that Gibbon informs us of one Firmus, who raised the standard of revolt in Egypt against the Emperor Aurelian; that he boasted he would maintain an army solely from the profits of his paper trade. At another time, in the reign of Tiberius, there happened such a scarcity of paper, from causes that are not mentioned, that the Senate, in order to prevent a riot, were obliged to appoint commissioners to distribute paper to the applicants according to their respective demands. Papyri vary much more in length than in breadth, and upon this fact I would dwell, as decidedly favouring the conception that the outer coat merely was employed in preparing the writing material. Indeed, in every specimen which I have examined, I have found the slips of which it is composed rarely exceeding twelve or fifteen inches even lengthwise. Whereas, if they had been produced from the pithy part of the stem, after being cut into slices, there would have been no difficulty whatever in manufacturing the paper of the entire length, which, as I have already stated, sometimes exceeded ten feet. The breadth of papyri seldom exceeds eighteen inches, sometimes they are not more than four inches in width, which I imagine to have been determined by the length of the outer coats or pellicles taken from the plant; the length, of course, being carried to any extent, simply by fastening one sheet to another. The largest specimen of which I have heard is one at Paris, measuring thirty feet in length. The most interesting which we possess in this country is one which may be seen in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, which appears to have been written in Latin in the year 572, upon a roll of papyrus, eight feet and a half long, and twelve inches wide. It is a deed relating to the sale of a house and land at Ravenna.