QO 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Copyright, 1912, by the National Geographic Magazine 
THK LITTLE divers' BOAT, USED IN RECOVERING THE BRONZES (SEE PAGE Id) 
For location of Mahdia, see map published as a supplement to this number 
of the museums and the excavations of 
the Protectorate of Tunisia in northern 
Africa. 
Monsieur Merhn went immediately to 
Mahdia to investigate for himself, and 
found that the Greek galley carried on 
its deck 40 or 50 huge marble columns, 
the weight of which prevented the divers 
from getting at the lower decks. 
Unfortunately, funds for excavating 
purposes were at a very low ebb at this 
time, and the French government very 
unwisely did not cooperate in its various 
departments ; so that, in spite of the fact 
that there were in the marvelous naval 
harbor of Bizerta, near Tunis, lying idly 
at anchor, huge French dreadnaughts 
and men-o'-war, with crews numbering 
from 800 to 1200, and carrying complete 
diving equipments not being used, noth- 
ing was done by them to advance this 
work, when at a word from the Minister 
of Marine any of these vessels could 
have been sent down to Mahdia and, at 
no extra cost or expense to the French 
government, have placed a large equip- 
ment of divers at the disposal of the 
Director of Antiquities and Fine Arts, 
thus accomplishing the work of bringing 
to the surface all these wonderful treas- 
ures. 
On the contrary, Monsieur Merlin had 
to hire local Greek divers from the port 
of Mahdia, and these curious marine ex- 
cavations have been carried on with but 
a few thousand francs a year. 
The sunken galley lies about five kilo- 
meters off the coast, in rather deep 
water. The exact spot is hard to mark, 
because the sea runs in very heavily, and 
there are numerous currents that fre- 
quently carry away the large buoys that 
are anchored there to mark the spot. 
Sallust, the Roman writer, has already 
described the Mediterranean on this part 
of the coast of Africa as being "terri- 
ble," and it has not changed since he 
wrote about it. 
The Greek bronzes and marbles which 
have been recovered from the galley dur- 
ing the past four years are of most in- 
terest to us. The bronzes are of two cate- 
