Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1879-02-13
FURTHER EXCAVATIONS AT TROY.


five years and a halt, resumed on Septem-
Der 80 last his search for the buried Troy.
He is obliged to give the imperial museum
at Constantinople two-thirds of the discov-
cries, and to bear all the expenses, now
amounting to So. 800 a month. A delegate
ofssthe Turkish government is on the spot,
DIR. S. traces the remains Of no fewer than
four prehistoric cities which had been built
OIL the same site, and the second of these
is he maintains, the Homeric Troy. He ex-
poets, before the season of operation closes,
to bring to light the whole western and
northern part of the circuit wall, the con-
struction of which Homer ascribes to Posei-
all that remains of the prehistoric mansion
Immediately to the northwest and west of
the great gate, which he attributes to the
ancient towns king, because it is the
largest and best built house in the city. In
it were found hundreds of remarkable oh
jects, and close to it the treasure now ex-
hibited in the South Kensington museum.
The walls of this mansion are at a depth of
about twenty-eight feet below the surface
of the hill, and precisely like the %cyclopean
walls of the royal palace at Mycena, and
the cyclopean houses at Tiryris. They can
only have served as ahstructures to a state
" and very elevated wooden building for
otherwise there is no way OF explaining the
huge masses of red, black and yellow wood
ashes, interlnixed with charcoal, by which
they are covered to a depth OF nine or ten
feet. Among these ashes the doctor has re-
Gently found a red handmade vase, con-
tanning, unong other things, twenty gold
earrings, four gold hairpins, a large num-
Der of gold beads, bracelet of electruna,
fragments of necklaces.
Most remarkable among the ley discov-
cries is a well-preseryed distaf Of weed,
eleven feet long, with the thread charred
black as coal. At this depth of twenty
eight feet curious objects of various kinds
are constantly being uaearthed. Three
gates before the prehistoric mansion have
been laid open, varying in breadth respec-
lively frontier to seventeen and one-fourth
feet. Unfortunately the approach of win
ter, which is severe in that region, will sus-
pend further excavations until spring. The
jealous antiquarian is sure that, eventually,
he will be able to prove to the most skepti-
cal that he has struck the site of the city of
Priam, and to more fully indentify the ruins
with the localities described by Homer.
The prehistoric times are Of vast signifi-
cation. Although the date of the Trojan
war can be fixed with some approach to &C
curacy, there is a vast period deeper IN the
womb of ages beyond the reach OF chronol-
ogy. 1t is only OF late years that we have
Ebegun to form some idea Of the immense
lapse of time from the creation to the pres
entsday. The ancients carried human an
nails back into ages that we take no account
of. The Egyptian priests reckoned the
time fromsthe reign Of Helius to Alexander
at about twenty-three thousand years.
Cicerosspeaks of the memorials of the Bah
ylonians- as embracing a period OF 100000
years, and Pliny cites Ephenes as saying
that they were in possession OF astronomi-
cal observations inscribed on baked bricks,
extending over 2 O,0een years. The Chi
nese and Hindoo cosmogonists claim a fab
ulous antiquity almost beyond calculation.
It is obvious that the ancient nations had
no belief or tradition that they were living
in the worlds youth.-PNladslphio Press.
-E-o---
REST FOR THE MIND.
When the daily occupation is nlonoto-
nous and unengrossing, asfnll supply OF ex-
element for the leisure hours may be. de-
sirable, but where the mental powers have
been taxed to their Utmost through the
hours of labor, it is absolutely necessary to
health and happiness that they be entirely