in fact discovered a second large gate (marked N F on Plan VII.), which I shall discuss in the subsequent pages. As I had to cut away a large part of the blocks of débris G, G' and a considerable part of the earthblock JE (Plan I. in Ilios), and had to dig down to an enormous depth, this excavation was one of the most troublesome and fatiguing, the more so as we had no other outlet than the great northern trench (X—Z on Plan VII.) into which the débris were shot, and had to be removed thence by horse or oxcarts, to be thrown out on the northern slope.
I also excavated to the north-west of L (see Plan I. in Ilios) at the place where, in 1873, I had discovered the altar represented in Ilios, p. 31, No. 6; and brought to light there a second gate of the third city, and, at 1.50 m. beneath it, a third large gate of the second city (marked OX on Plan VII.) both these gates will be discussed in the subsequent pages. I further cleared the southern part of the building L and L' (see Plan I. in Ilios), in which we now recognized a large gate of the Roman age of Ilium. In order to bring to light more of the first city, I enlarged and excavated down to the rock the great northern trench (X on Plan I. in Ilios, and X—Z on Plan VII. in this volume), as far as was possible without demolishing any of the foundations of the second city. In doing so I discovered many interesting walls of the first city (marked f and f a, f b, f c, on Plan VII.), which I shall discuss in the following pages.
My researches in the spring of 1873, on the plateau to the east, south, and west of the Acropolis, had been but very superficial. As may be seen from Plan II. in Ilios, they had been limited to twenty shafts sunk at random over the vast extent of the lower city of Ilium, and in five instances in places where the rock was only covered with a layer of débris a few feet deep. Besides, in three of the deeper shafts (see D, O, R, and the vignette on Plan II. in Ilios), I struck tombs cut into or built upon the rock. In three other
