SCIENCE AND POLITICS 149 



legislative and other work which he accomplished 

 afterwards, his scientific light became, except to 

 those who, being men of science themselves, really 

 knew the facts, rather hidden under a bushel. 



It is amusing to read the school-boyish enthusi- 

 asm with which Schliemann, in the spring of the 

 following year, writes to Sir John of his further 

 Trojan discoveries : 



Troy, 20th May 1873. 



Your Excellency — Hurrah the Skaeangate, which 

 consists of two separate gates, the one 6 metres 13 

 centimetres distant from the other ; hurrah the copper 

 bolts with which they were shut ; hurrah the house of 

 Priamos, which is the lower one just N.E. of the gate, 

 for, as your Excellency will see, the upper one was only 

 built when the lower one, as well as the Skaeangate and 

 the paved road, were covered 10 feet high with calcinated 

 rubbish. In the lower house I found an enormous 

 quantity of wonderful antiquities, and amongst them 

 an owl-headed Minerva, the protecting divinity of Troy, 

 of terra-cotta 60 centimetres high and with engraved 

 princely ornaments ; another owl-headed Minerva with 

 an immense shield, holding in each arm hoses (dy/<oi's) 

 in form of bottles, and on the back with very long cuehair, 

 which is in the shape of that of the Karyatides in the 

 Acropolis of Athens ; also lots of idols with the image 

 of the y\avK<07ns. On one of the vases discovered there 

 is an inscription which is, I think, in Phrygian characters, 

 but I am not sure. I have also excavated the tumulus 

 which, according to Homer, was attributed by the gods 

 to Myrina, whilst men thought it to be the tomb of 

 Batiaea. 1 



But now my mission is accomplished ; the topography 

 of Troy I have well ascertained by the 15 deep wells I 

 have sunk, and I shall therefore be off as soon as my 

 engineer gets ready the plans. — I am, your Excellency's 

 faithfully, H. Schliemann. 



This year he brought in his first Bill for the 

 early closing of shops, a movement with which 



x Iliad, ii. 811. 



