COINS OR METALS.[ToList]
"In excavating the ground upon which my wooden house had stood we found, at a depth of from nine to nineteen inches, eighteen copper and two silver medals; one of the latter is of Marcus Aurelius. The other is a tetra-drachm of the island of Tenedos; on the obverse, to the right, is the head of Jupiter, to the left that of Juno, both having one neck in common, like the heads of Janus. The head of Jupiter is crowned with laurels, that of Juno has a wreath or crown. Upon the reverse of the coin there is a laurel wreath round the edge, and in the centre a large double ax, above which stands the word Teneelion, below and to the right of the handle of the double ax there is a winged Eros, who is holding up an object which it is difficult to distinguish, to the left is a bunch of grapes and a monogram, which looks like the letter A.
"Of the copper coins five are of Alexandria Troas, two of Ophrynium, one of Tenedos, two of Abydos, and one of Dardania.
"When I uncovered the road paved with large flags of stone, which leads from the Scæan Gate to the Plain, the stones looked as new as if they had just been hewn. But since then, under the influence of the burning sun, the flags of the upper portion of the road, which have specially suffered from the conflagration that destroyed the city, are rapidly crumbling away, and will probably have quite disappeared in a few years. However, the flags of stone on the northwestern half of the road, which have been less exposed to the heat, may still last many centuries.
"In this day, closing the excavations at Ilium forever, I can not but fervently thank God for His great mercy, in that, notwithstanding the terrible danger to which we have been exposed owing to the continual hurricanes, during the last three years' gigantic excavations, no misfortune has happened, no one has been killed, and no one has been seriously hurt.
"In my last report I did not state the exact number of springs in front of the Ilium. I have now visited all the springs myself, and measured their distance from my excavations, and I can give the following account of them. The first spring, which is situated directly below the ruins of the ancient town-wall, is exactly 399 yards from my excavations; its water has a temperature of 60.8° Fahrenheit. It is enclosed to a height of six and-one-half feet by a wall of large stones joined with cement, nine and one-quarter feet in breadth, and in front of it there are two stone troughs for watering cattle. The second spring, which is likewise still below the ruins of the ancient town-wall, is exactly 793 yards distant from my excavations. It has a similar enclosure of large stones, seven feet high and five feet broad, and has the same temperature. But it is out of repair, and the water no longer runs through the stone pipe in the enclosure, but along the ground before it reaches the pipe. The double spring spoken of in my last report is exactly 1,033 yards from my excavations. It consists of two distinct springs, which run out through two stone pipes lying beside each other in the enclosure composed of large stones joined with earth, which rises to a height of seven feet and is twenty-three feet broad; its temperature is 62.6° Fahrenheit. In front of these two springs there are six stone troughs, which are placed in such a manner that the superfluous water always runs from the first trough through all the others. It is extremely probable that these are the two springs mentioned by Homer, beside which Hector was killed.
"'They (Hector and Achilles) in flight and pursuit,
They by the watch-tower, and beneath the wall
Where stood the wind-beat fig-tree, raced amain
Along the public road, until they reached
The fairly-flowing founts, whence issued forth,
From double source, Scamander's eddying streams.
One with hot current flows, and from beneath,
As from a furnace, clouds of steam arise;
'Mid Summer's heat the other rises cold
As hail, or snow, or water crystallized;
Beside the fountains stood the washing-troughs
Of well-wrought stone, where erst the wives of Troy
And daughters fair their choicest garments washed,
In peaceful times, ere came the sons of Greece.'
"In this new excavation I find four earthen pipes, from eighteen and three-quarters to twenty-two and one-quarter inches long, and from six and one-half to eleven and three-quarters inches thick, laid together for conducting water, which was brought from a distance of about seven miles from the upper Thymbrius. This river is now called the Kemar, from the Greek word kamara (vault), because an aqueduct of the Roman period crosses its lower course by a large arch. This aqueduct formerly supplied Ilium with drinking water from the upper portion of the river. But the Pergamus required special aqueducts, for it lies higher than the city.
