thing by conjecture; and even admitting, in certain instances, doubtful traces, which were perhaps casualties caused by injuries the stone had sustained, having no reference to the legend.

The words of the inscription are supposed to be Arabic, expressed in Hebrew and Phoenician characters. The arrow-headed character occurs here, as in the inscriptions at Telmessus.

All the face of this mountain, along the dingle, supposed to be the Vale of Gehinnon, by Sandys, is marked by similar excavations. Some of these, as may be seen by reference to a former note, did not escape his searching eye; although he reglected to observe their inscriptions, probably from keeping the beaten track of pilgrims going from Mount Sion to the Mount of Olives, and neglecting to cross the valley in order to examine them more nearly. The top of the mountain is covered by ruined walls and the remains of sumptuous edifices: these he also noticed; but he does not even hint at their origin. Here again we are at a loss for intelligence; and future travellers will be aware of the immense field of inquiry which so many undescribed remains belonging to Jerusalem offer to their observation. If the foundations and ruins as of a citadel may be traced all over this eminence, the probability is, that this was the real Mount Sion; that the Gehin. non of Sandys, and of many other writers, was in fact the Valley of Millo, called Tyropoon by Josephus, which separated Sion from Mount Moriah, and extended as far as the Fountain Siloa, where it joined the Valley of Jehosaphat. The sepulchres will then appear to have been situated beneath the walls of the citadel, as was the case in many antient cities. Such was the situation of the Grecian sepulchres in the Crimea, belonging to the ancient city of Chersonesus, in the Minor Peninsula of the Heracleotæ. The inscriptions already noticed seem to favour this position; and if hereafter it should ever be confirmed, the remarkable things belonging to Mount Sion, of which Pococke says there are no remains in the hill now bearing that appellation, will in fact be found here. The Garden of the Kings, near the Pool of Siloam, where Manasseh and Amon, kings of Judah, were buried; the cemetery of the kings of Juhah; the traces and remains of Herod's palaces, called after the names of Cæsar and Agrippa; together with the other places mentioned by Nehemiah. All along the side of this mountain, and in the rocks above the Valley of Jehosaphat, upon the eastern side of Jerusalem, as far as the sepulchres

of Zechariah and Absalom, and above these, almost to the top of the Mount of Olives, the Jews resident in the city bury their dead, adhering still to the cemetry of their ancestors: but having long lost the art of constructing the immense sepulchres now described, they content themselves in placing Hebrew inscriptions upou small upright slabs of marble, or of common limestone, raised after the manner at present generally in use throughout the East. [Dr. Clarke.

SECTION XIII.

Interesting Ruins of the Plain of Troy.

WE crossed the Mender by a wooden bridge, immediately after leaving Koum.kalé; and ascertained its breadth, in that part, to equal an hundred and thirty yards. We then entered an immense plain, in which some Turks were engaged hunting wild boars. Peasants were also employed in ploughing a deep and rich soil of vegetable earth. Proceeding towards the east, and round the bay distinctly pointed out by Strabo, as the harbour in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, we arrived at the Sepulchre of Ajax, upon the ant ent Rhotean Promontory. Concerning this tumulus there is every reason to believe our information correct. If we had only the text of Strabo for our guidance, there would be little ground for incredulity; and, by the evidence afforded in a view of the monument itself, we have the best comment upon this accuracy. It is one of the most interesting objects to which the attention of the literary traveller can possibly be directed. In. stead of the simple Stêlé, usually employed to decorate the summit of the most antient sepulchral mounds, all writers, who have mentioned the tomb of Ajax, relate, that it was surmounted by a shrine, in which a statue of the hero was preserved. Religious regard for this hallowed spot continued through so many ages, that even to the time in which Christianity decreed the destruction of the Pagan idols, the sanctity of the Aïanteum was maintained and venerated. Such importance was annexed to the inviolability of the monument, that after Anthony had carried into Egypt the consecrated image, it was again recovered by Augustus, and restored to its pristine shrine. These facts may possibly serve to account for the present appearance of the tomb, on whose summit that shrine itself, and a considerable portion of the super

structure, remain unto this hour. Pliny, moreover, mentions the situation of the tomb as being in the very station of the Grecian fleet; and, by giving its exact distance from Sigeum, not only adds to our conviction of its identity, but marks at the same time, most decisively, the position of the Portus Achæorum. In all that remains of former ages, I know of nothing likely to affect the mind by emotions of local enthusiasm more powerfully than this most interesting tomb. It is impossible to view its sublime and simple form, without calling to mind the veneration so long paid to it; without picturing to the imagination a successive series of mariners, of kings and heroes, who from the Hellespont, or by the shores of Troas and Chersonesus, or on the sepulchre itself, poured forth the tribute of their homage; and finally, without representing to the mind the feelings of a native, or of a traveller, in those times, who, after viewing the existing monu. ment, and witnessing the instances of public and private regard so constantly bestowed upon it, should have been told the age was to arrive when the existence of Troy, and of the mighty dead entombed upon its plain, would be considered as having no foundation in truth.

The present appearance of the shrine, and of a small circular superstruction, do not seem to indicate higher antiquity than the age of the Romans. Some have believed, from the disclosure of the shrine, that the tomb itself was opened; mistaking it for a vault, although its situation near the summit might have contro. verted the opinion. This was perhaps constructed when Augustus restored the image Anthony had taken from the Aïanteum. A cement was certainly employed in the work; and the remains of It to this day offer an opportunity of confuting every prevailing error concerning the buildings of the antients. The Greeks erected many of their most stupendous edifices without cementa. tion; hence it has been supposed that the appearance of mortar in a building precludes its claim to antiquity. This notion is how. ever set aside at once by reference to the pyramids of Egypt: in building these, mortar was undoubtedly used.

The view here afforded of the Hellespont and the Plain of Troy is one of the finest the country affords. Several plants, during the season of our visit, were blooming upon the soil. Upon the tomb itself we noticed the silvery mezereon, the poppy, the beardless hypecoum, and the field star of Bethlehem.

From the Aïanteum we passed over a heathy country to Halil Elly, a village near the Thymbrius, in whose vicinity we had been. instructed to seek the remains of a temple once sacred to the Thymbrean Apollo. The ruins we found were rather the remains of ten temples than of one. The earth to a very considerable extent was covered by subverted and broken columns of marble granite, and of every order in architecture. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals, lay dispersed in all directions, and some of these were of great beauty. We observed a bas-relief represent. ing a person on horseback pursued by a winged figure; also a beautiful representation, sculptured after the same manner of Ceres in her car drawn by two scaly serpents. Of three inscriptions which I copied among these ruins, the first was engraven upon the shaft of a marble pillar. This we removed, and brought to England. It is now in the vestibule of the public library at Cambridge; and commemorates the public services of a phrontistes of Drusus Cæsar. The names of persons belonging to the family of Germanicus occur frequently among inscriptions found in and near Troas. Drucus, the son of Germanicus, was himself ap pointed to a government in the district. Whatsoever tends in any degree to illustrate the origin of the ruins in which it was discover. ed, will be considered interesting; although, after all, we must remain in a state of the greatest uncertainty with regard to the city alluded to in either of these documents. Possibly it may have been Scamandria, but in the multitude of cities belonging to Troas, a mere conjecture, without any positive evidence, is less pardonable than silence. The inscription, offering our only remaining clue, sets forth that the tribe Attalis commemorated Sextus Julius Festus, a magistrate of the city, and præfect of the Flavian cohort, who had beea Gymnasiarch, and giveu magnificently and largely, to the senators and all citizens, oil and ointment for some public festival.

The third inscription and perhaps the most important, had these remarkable words

THE ILIEANS TO THEIR COUNTRY'S GOD ÆNEAS."

If this had been found by a late respectable and learned author, it might have confirmed him in the notion that the Thymbrius was

in fact the Simoïs as he believed; and perhaps have suggested, in the present name of the place, Halil Ii, (or, as I have written it Halil Elly, to conform to the mode of pronunciation,) an etymology from A ON.

From the ruins at Halil Elly, we proceeded through a delightful valley, full of vineyards, and almond trees in full bloom, intending to pass the night at the village of Thymbreck. We found no antiquities, nor did we hear of any in the neighbourhood. The next day returning toward Halil Elly, we left it upon our right, and crossed the Thymbrius by a ford. In summer this river becomes almost dry; but during winter it often presents a power. ful torrent, carrying all before it. Not one of the maps, or of the works yet published upon Troas, has informed us of its termi nation according to some, it empties itself into the Mender near its embouchure; others describe it as forming a junction near Tchiblack; a circumstance of considerable importance; for if this last position be true, the ruins at Tchiblack may be those of the Temple of the Thymbræan Apollo. Strabo expressly states the situation of the temple to be near the place where the Thymbrius discharges itself into the Scamander. After we had passed the ford, we ascended a ridge of hills, and found the remains of a very ancient paved way. We then came to the town or village of Tchiblack, where we noticed very considerable remains of ancient sculpture, but in such a state of disorder and ruin, that no precise description of them can be given. The most remarkable are upon the top of a hill called Beyan Mezaley, near the town, in the midst of a beautiful grove of oak trees, towards the village of Cal. lifat. Here the ruins of a Doric Temple of white marble lay heaped in the most striking manner, mixed with broken stélæ, Cippi, Sarcophagi, cornices and capitals of very enormous size, entablatures, and pillars. All of these have reference to some peculiar sanctity by which this hill was anciently characterized. It is of a conical form, and stands above the town of Tchiblack, appearing as large as the Castle Hill at Cambridge. The first inquiry that suggests itself, in a view of this extraordinary scene, na. turally involves the original cause of the veneration in which the place was anciently held. Does it denote the site of Pagus Iliensium, whose inhabitants believed that their village stood on the site of Ancient Troy? This place was distant thirty stadia from the New Ilium of Strabo; and the distance corresponds with the rela