serpents, but my labourers were not afraid of their bite, for they declared they had drunk, before coming to work with me, an antidote which they called "sorbet," and which made the bite even of the most poisonous snakes harmless. But I was never able to obtain this antidote from them, though I promised a large reward for it.
I proceeded to empty the Hellenic well in the Acropolis,[1] the mouth of which I had brought to light in the autumn of 1871, about 2 mètres below the surface. At the depth of 18 mètres I found in it many rude prehistoric stone hammers of diorite and a polishing-stone of jasper, and below these implements large masses of Greek and Roman tiles of various forms, which seem to prove that the stone implements had been thrown into the well at a later time, together with other débris. On reaching the depth of 22 mètres I had to stop this work on account of the water, which rose faster than I could draw it up. The last objects taken out of the well were six sheeps'-skulls.
I also sunk in the eastern part of the Acropolis a shaft 3 mètres square, in which I struck the rock at the depth of 14 mètres.[2]
One of my greater works was a trench (marked SS on Plan VII.), 80 mètres long and 7 mètres broad, which I dug in March and April, from the point K to the point L,[3] across the eastern part of the Acropolis, which was then still unexcavated, in order to ascertain how far the citadel of the earliest prehistoric cities extended in this direction. This work was exceedingly difficult, on account of the immense masses of small stones and huge boulders which we had to remove, as well as on account of the depth (no less than 12 mètres) to which we had to dig to reach the rock. The trench was excavated simultaneously
