Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1870-12-16
n .vBIJ.LI' U.VB.rRTEYED CITY.

The Revue des Deux Mondes gives an
account Of the discovery of buried city,
older than Pompeii. 1t is on Therasia, a
small island of the Greek Archipelago,
which, with two others, forms sort of cir
cular bay.
The inner coast presents a series of cliffs,
sometimes reaching to a height of 1900 feet.
On the top of these cliffs lies a band of pum-
ice stone of brilliant whiteness. From the
summit the land slopes away gently to the
open sea, and is everywhere covered with a
coating of tulla or pozzulolana, at times
more than 100 feet deep. Here and there
upon the slopes are scattered populous viii
lagos. There is, however, no soil but fri
able pumice, the dust of which is raised and
carried in oddes by the very strong winds.
This pumice, when duly mixed with lime,
produces a hard cement, which has the
quality of great resistance to the action of
the weather or sea water. 1t has for some
time been exported, and the works at the
! Suez canal haye caused lately an increased
demand for it, In quarrying, the tulla has
been quite cut through, and beneath have
been found remains of buildings erected by
the primitive dwellers in the islands.
The first discoveries were made in The
rasia. On the southern face of the islands.
between the two capes in which it termn-
ates, are vast open quarries. The work. are
at the edge of the cliff, and the material is
hurled down some 500 feet to the base.
whence it is directed by shoots into boats.
The workmen have been accustomed not TO
cut down to the bottom of the stratum, since
below certain level they found that the
puzzololana was mixed with blocks of
stone, which, besides making it more diff
cult to work, reduceS. its value. These
blocks lay in regular nes, and were the
creSts of walls. There can be no doubt that
the buildings were raised to dwell in, and
that the pumice which covered them had
not been stirred since it first fell from the
volcanoes.
The principal buildings uncovered con-
tains six rooms of various sizes, the largest
being about 20 by II feet, the smallest lit
tie more than S feet square. One of the
walls is carried out so far as to inclose
sort of court, about 20 feet long, with sin
gle entrance. A smaller building of one
chamber has been opened closed to this,
and the crests of several walls in the neigh
borhood bear witness to the existence of
houses still buried. The masonry is quite
different from that at present in use in the
island, containing neither pozzulolana nor
lime. The walls are composed of irregular
blocks of unhewn lava, laid one above an
other without order, the intersticos being
filed with reddish colored volcanic ashes.
Among the walls are laid in every direction
long branches of olive wood, now for the
most part so decayed that they crumble at
the first touch. The object of these was to
make the walls less ridged, and so less sub
ject to disturbance from earthquakes.
One human skeleton was found, that of
man of middle age, who was doubled upin
one corner of the room as if crushed under
the weight of the roof when it broke in
Much of his property escaped destruction,
and objects of various kinds were there's
vessels of lava and earthen ware, grain,
straw, bones of animals, tools Of flint and
of lava. There was no trace of metals, not
even a nail in the woodwork of the roof
The pottery is of several kinds. Large,
yellowish jars, holding sometimes as much
as 20 gallons, are the most common. They
contain barley, peas, anise, etc.