carefully instilled into her mind, the principles of virtue and religion.

Lady Colambre did not think it necessary to make a public profession of her faith; she trusted that, in this 'Christian land,' none would have so little Christian charity, as to suspect her of being an infidel."

Clonbrony Castle, Aug. 26, 1812.

For the Monthly Magazine. LETTERS FROM ATHENS; by M. FAUVEL, VICE-CONSUL of FRANCE at that CITY, and CORRESPONDENT of the IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.

Athens, April 4, 1811. IR,I have had considerable diggings made in this city, and some foreigners have caused still greater excavations to be undertaken; we have been fortu. nate enough to make some interesting discoveries. Our search took place o the great road which leads from the Hippades gate to Acharnes, to the left, on going towards those suburbs, at about 150 fathoms from the gate just mentioned, and nearly 140 from the present gate. We there found some ancient burying grounds, about fifteen feet below the surface.

It may not, perhaps, be irrelevant to inform you, that the spot in which are the remains of the Hippades gate, is still called by the Greeks and Turks the Racegate, because it is here that the diversion of foot-races is still performed. One circumstance worthy of notice is, that the competitors run naked, with only a simple piece of linen round the middle. There are three prizes, or, more properly speaking, two, as the third is nothing but an enormous radish, or carrot, which causes the gain er to be rewarded by the hootings of the populace. These roots feet long, a and about three inches in diameter.

are here

two

You know that the moderns have their

wrestlers, the same as the ancients had. These persons are naked, except a cloth round the loins, which is steeped in oil, with which the body is likewise rubbed. They also roll themselves in the sand, that they may take a firm hold of each other at the time of the contest. The prize is gained by him who throws his ad

yersary.

I found, as I have told you, the ancient soil at fifteen feet below the surface; the tombs were close together. We saw several cippi of different forms, which were overturned, as well as sarcophagi of marble, 1813.].

ble, and others of common stone; there were some tombs formed of fine tiles, three feet long, which had belonged to grand buildings. On some of these were painted handsome ornaments, as was also the case with those marble tombs, the stones of which must have belonged to grand temples; a fact which it is difficult to make our architects comprehend, as they will not believe that the ancients painted their statues and bas-reliefs. In these sarcophagi I generally found the skeleton lying on a thick bed of oliveleaves, in a burnt state: I also found in them several thin pieces of beaten gold, in the shape of serpents' tongues; and likewise blades of copper, on which was inscribed the name of the deceased. On the ends, or the small columns affixed to these tombs, were brief inscriptions, the letters of which were alternately black and red. There were also bas reliefs, which were painted. On one of these columns I read,

Many of these tombs contain only the ashes of burnt bones, or handsome urns, in which are likewise ashes. Amongst these I have frequently found the obolus, which has not been paid to Charon.

Respecting this pilot of the shades, I have a representation of him on a vase. He is painted in the act of pushing his bark ashore with a pote, which indicates that the infernal rivers were not very deep. He has no oars in his boat, which is exactly similar to the Piades employed at Constantinople for the conveyance of passengers at that port. This proves that the people of Asia have not changed their customs: hence I am convinced that the large boats of the Hellespont, which are towed along here, and which I have seen on the very parts where were for

19

merly those of the divine Achilles, are still of the same shape as were those of the ancients; so that, if the son of Thetis could return to earth, he would think he was again beholding his fleet at the Sigeum.

But a circumstance more curious than old Charon is an obolus which I found fixed in the mouth of a skeleton, between the last tooth on the right side and the jaw; I retained it in this situation. Here is an incontestable proof that it was customary to put the coin in the mouth of the deceased; a practice still kept up in some villages of Bœotia, as I was in formed by one of the inhabitants of those parts. I also found in one of these tombs a thin sheet of lead, about five inches long by three broad; it was folded in four folds the long way, and then doubled in half: it contained an inscription of ten lines, which proved to be an imprecation against one Cleophrades and his whole family. (This inscription has been translated by M. VISCONTI, and will be printed in some of the early Reports of the Proceedings of the Institute.)

The following is a description of a handsome vase which I have found: A winged Genius, in a car drawn by four white horses with wings, has arrived at an altar, on which is a tripod: he is using all his strength to restrain his coursers. Another Genius is flying before him, as if to check the horses and seize the tripod, the prize of the race. Another, richly dressed, follows the car, and appears to be watering, from a vase, a laurel, which has grown up in the path of the car. On the car is written ΧΡΥΣΟΣ; on the victorious Genius NIKH, and on the third one

ΠΛΟΤΟΣ.

I also found some superb urns about two feet high. On one is a figure of Ceres, sitting, the little Plutus at her feet, near a great fruit basket; by the side of the goddess is a Ceryx, with his caduceus, two Dadouchi, and a Bacchante. On the other side of the vase is a beautiful woman, dancing between two Fauns, On another part Mercury appears, bringing the little Bacchus to Silenus. An Ethiopian king is seen at table, served by winged genji, and by a kind of clownish master of the ceremonies. On another part are Isis and Serapis; Isis is lying in the lap of Serapis, and playing on the lyre: a youth is bringing fruits, dates, and species of ananas: the place appears to be lighted by a candelabra; table are vases, crowns, and vine-leaves. I am translating an inscription which

a

D2

on one

Saw

saw on a cippus, amongst the tombs, bout fifteen feet below the surface. It alludes to a man of Megara, who saved a corps of Athenians in one of the wars. (It is in Greek verse, and will be printed in the Reports of the third Class of the Institute.) I have likewise met with many other curious inscriptions.

LETTER II.

Athens, August 26, 1811.

SIR,-J must apprise you, and request that you will make known the circumstance to the Third Class of the Institute, of a discovery of great importance to the arts, which has just been made in the isle of Ægina. Four young artists and architects, two of whom, Baron Haller and M. Link, are Germans, having met together in this country, and being in pursuit of the same object, caused some

excavations to be made at the foundation of the Temple of the Panhellenian Jupiter; and they have found the statues which ornamented the front of this temple. These statues are of Parian marble, and they are as interesting on account of the subject they represent, as from their great antiquity and the beauty of their sculpture. It appears that this temple was overthrown by an earthquake, and the statues, falling first, were covered by the rest of the ruins: the lapse of time added heaps of vegetable strata to the rubbish, and the roots of large trees had shot amongst the buried architraves and cornices. Our young artists caused the whole to be brought to light, and they have found the statues, which have not been much injured by the fall. The limbs, which were broken from the trunks, were lying beside them, and they can be easily replaced. There are seventeen of these statues, all of the finest specimens of sculpture: the heads alone are a little degraded, but they are highly Beautiful, scarcely any of the fragments are missing. These figures much resembles those which are seen on the most ancient medals of Corinth, Thebes, and Athens. They are of the old school of Ægina, one of the first which became distinguished in Greece.

I went to Ægina in order to profit by this discovery, which much interested me: I measured this ruined temple, so as to gain all the particulars of its plan. The pediments were five feet in height. Over each pediment were two statues of Isis, which were attached to the border; and at the four angles of the edifice were Sphinxes. These figures were exactly

similar to those of the pretended tomb of Achilles, in the Troad; and from this circumstance I am inclined to think that the temple in question is not that of the Panhellenian Jupiter, but that it was dedicated to Isis. In the middle of each pediment was a statue of Pallas, armed with a lance and shield, and her breast covered with the ægis. She was standing in the midst of combatants, who surrounded her on every side, and she appears as if animating them by her looks. This figure of Minerva is of the most antique style, and of the kind which we improperly call Etruscan, with regular folds.

His

On each side were the combatants, all of which appear to be the heroes of the Iliad. The faces seem to have been portraits, and the bodies are scientifically correct. These warriors are covered with offensive and defensive weapons, such as were in use at the time of the Trojan war: they are shaped with great nicety, and consist of quivers, helmets of different sizes, lances, shields, &c. The figures are rather less than the natural size. We thought we could discover Priam, with his sons, like a Phrygian archer, resting one knee on the ground, and drawing an arrow. dress appears to be of leather, and inade to fit close to the body; pantaloons, likewise tight, which descend to the ancles; the helmet has over it a leather bonnet, which terminates in a point, and falls over behind: this is the only figure that is dressed. Another is taken for Philoctetes; it is in the same attitude as Paris, and is opposed to the one just described: it is armed with a bow. The front of its helmet represents a lion's muzzle; perhaps the figure is meant as a friend of Hercules. He wears a cuirass of a single piece, which could only open on the left side, which leads to the opinion that it was thin and elastic. Hector, or another Trojan Prince, is overthrown; he has received a large wound in the breast; his hair, twisted symmetrically on the forehead, and fastened by a kind of diadem, falls over his shoulders. One head, with a small beard, and the casque thrown back, seems to be Ulysses. Of these figures, the archers alone are clothed; the others are of the heroic kind; that is to say, literally naked, and armed with casques and shields; some have also swords, others have lances and pikes.

On the western pediment is a young girl, such as Venus is represented on the

and conversing with the colliers. I have seen in many places the coal-seams repeatedly broken, so that they basset-out many times at the same level. In geneval the greatest expense for working the coal-beds is occasioned by the numerous faults, the change of inclination and of level of the same seam, and the depth at which they are obliged to follow them, whence the water is to be pumped out. have given an instance of this, with many details, in p. 216, of the first volume of my Travels in England.

I

In the beginning of the above quoted passage Mr. Farey says: "Mr. De Luc mentions having proved in his works, that coal-beds are submerged peat mossesa position from which I must entirely dissent, after having examined large tracts of carboniferous strata." Thus far I have followed him in all that he has said to prove his opinion, but I am going to adduce such a proof of mine as I cannot doubt will convince him. For this I must again refer to my Geological Travels, now in the press; but they will be soon published, and the facts which I shall now relate will be found in them, with all their particulars.

I have described many hills in the countries of Hosse and Brunswick, and indicated some in other parts of Germany, where are found beds of what is called in those countries Surturbrandt, or brown coal, which is absolutely fossil peat, with very little alteration. Mere peat occupies the upper part, and mosses, branches, and roots of trees, are found in the lower part, as in the recent peat mosses. These beds, of evident vogetable origin, he on lime-stone strata, containing marine bodies, and are covered with stony strata of other kinds, exactly in the same manner as the coal beds. They have been discovered on the sides of valhes, in the sections of the strata produced by subsidence. This will appear evidently by the description which I give of these vallies.

These beds are worked for fuel; I entered three of them, from thirty to sixty reet thick, and of an noknown extent, because they dip under the superficial ground. Now the following circumstances will be found, with many details, in my descriptions. 1. In some places these beds are worked for the wood at the bottom, and are entered at that part in their section towards the valley. 2. In other places they are entered by the upper part, where, to a certain depth, the peat is almost mineralized into coal,

having shining fractures like coal, and being intermixed with pyrites, as are some coals, and as I have seen peat in some parts of North Holland, in which pyrites are found. 3. The same faults, and with the same characters as in coal. beds, are found in that fossil peat, and evidently by a greater subsidence of one side of a fracture than the other; which faults also extend through all the stony strata, above and under. 4. These beds abut against stony strata, both of limestone and grit, in such a manner, that the miners must cut their way through these strata sidewise, to arrive at the peat bed. 5. The convulsions of the strata, in which blocks had been thrown on the surface, had preceded the formation of these peat mosses or islands; for large blocks of primordial stones are found at the bottom of this fossil-peat.

I persuade myself that, when Mr. Farey shall have seen such precise facts, and many others, in these Travels, he will conceive to how great an extent the observations should be carried previously to the formation of any geological system: he will judge also that I had solid reasons for all my assertions; and, in particular, that, in my explanation of the origin of coal-beds, I had been directed by incontrovertible facts.

The author comes next to an object, referring to my answer to Common Sense, which deserves examination, he says, p. 516, "That the internal parts of the earth are cavernous, is pretty completely disproved by the general gravity of the whole mass; and that it was ever caver nous, as Mr. De Luc asserts, p. 414, aš an essential point of his theory, I see the strongest reasons to disbelieve; and to think that the valleys having been occasioned by the angular motions and depressions of parts of the strata into these caverns, is alike a mistaken imagery."

Mr. Farey has noticed my Travels in England, but I may judge that he has not been sufficiently attentive to all their parts. In the first volume, being the second of my Travels, describing, at p. 129, & seq. the hills and quarries of Swanage, and after having explained how the actual caverns in our continents must absolutely have proceeded from the subsidence of parts of the strata in pre-existent caverns underneath, I described external phenomena in all the parts of these hills, which demonstrated in as a fact.

But in the same volume I gave an accurate description of a ridge of calcareous mountains,