424 Dr. Charles Waldstein [June 2, 



tlie date of wliicli lay between the years 340 and 278 b.o. This 

 document embodied a formal contract for the execution of a work 

 resembling that which in our ow^n times has been done by the 

 Bedford Level Commissioners. It recited that an engineer, Chaere- 

 phanes by name, contracted with the Eretrians to drain their marshes. 

 He was himself to bear the cost of the work on condition that he was 

 to be allowed to cultivate the reclaimed land for ten years at an 

 annual rental of 30 talents, or about 7000Z. The work was to be 

 completed in four years. In case of war the ten years' lease was to 

 be prolonged by a like period. There were also provisions for the 

 compensation of persons whose land might be taken for the making 

 of reservoirs or sluices, and the concession was to continue in the 

 heirs of Chaerephanes, and the latter was to find sureties for the due 

 execution of the works. This was one of the many indications of the 

 richness of Euboea as a field for archaeological research, and would be 

 found to have an incidental bearing upon the question at issue. 



At the beginning of the present year Dr. Waldstein, having 

 obtained a concession from the Greek authorities, proceeded from 

 Athens to Eretria for the purpose of excavating the theatre and 

 of digging out tombs, and in particular of discovering if he could, 

 the temple of Artemis Amarysia. As is well known, the Greeks were 

 in the habit of burying their dead outside the city walls, and at Eretria 

 there was a continuous succession of graves running in different direc- 

 tions from the ancient city. These graves were of different periods, 

 some as late as the Roman period, and many of the persons buried 

 were foreigners. Out of 26 inscriptions he found that no fewer than 

 eight referred to strangers and sojourners in the land. In the course 

 of his excavations he came upon the most beautiful of all the family 

 tombs which has yet been discovered. 



The lecturer had described the difficulties which he encountered in 

 the labour of excavation in the article above referred to, and, in fact 

 he and his associates had three times to give up the attempt. In the 

 course of his narrative he gave an interesting account of Greek 

 writing materials — fxeXav ypacfuKov, for ink, KoXa/xos ypacftLKoSy a pen — 

 being the materials used for permanent records on papyrus ; whilst 

 the cTTt'Aos or ypacfiU was the stylus used for writing notes of transient 

 importance on waxed tablets. He had already in the article referred 

 to described the statuettes and ornaments and other things, including 

 the only extant metal pen, so far as he knew, which had been found 

 in Greece. 



As before mentioned. Dr. Waldstein, in his contribution to the 

 * Nineteenth Century,' had dealt in a sceptical spirit with his own 

 discovery. He now argued the affirmative side of the question, and 

 indicated the considerations which induced him to believe that in the 

 family tomb which he had discovered once reposed the Stagirite's 

 remains. 



According to the best authorities, Aristotle died at Chalcis in 

 332 B.C., of disease in the stomach, at the age of 63 years. The 



