41 
The following Communications were then read : — ■ 
1. Excursions in the Troad, with Observations on its Topo- 
graphy and Antiquities. By Dr William Robertson, 
F.R.C.P.E. Communicated by Dr J. Y. Simpson. 
The author had resided for fifteen months, in 1855-56, within 
a few miles of the Plain of Troy, and had made excursions over it 
at all seasons. 
His paper commenced with a description of the western ex- 
tremity of the Asiatic coast of the Hellespont, between Abydos 
and Koum Kaleh, including the River Rhodius and the sites of 
Dardanus, Ophrynium, Pteleos, Rhsetium, and Novum Ilium, all 
of which he considered positively identified. A minute topogra- 
phical account followed : first, of the valley of the Dumbrek 
(Simois) ; next, of the valley of the Mendere (Scamander) ; next, 
of the valley of the Kimair (Thymbrius of Strabo) ; and lastly, 
of the hilly country between these streams, and of the relics of 
antiquity which it included. 
The author believed that Homer’s Troy must have stood, like the 
Novum Ilium of Strabo, on the hill now called Hissarlik — that the 
mouth of the Scamander was formerly two miles to the east of its 
present main channel, and that the In-Tepeh-Osmak and Kali- 
fatli-Osmak might be regarded as its terminations in the times of 
Homer and Strabo. He showed that these, and the other Osmaks 
in the valley of the Mendere, were at present merely winter 
channels of the river, and that in summer they would be dry 
nullahs, but for the drainings from the extensive marshes left by 
the winter inundations of the plain. He believed that the bay 
between Koum Kaleh and In-Tepeh was deeper in the days of 
Homer, and that its eastern extremity, in particular, had during 
the last 2000 years been materially encroached upon by deposits 
of mud and sand from the rivers and sea. 
He remarked that Homer made no mention of a river Thym- 
brius, and that the Thymbra which is alluded to in the Iliad 
very probably stood in the valley of the Simois, to which it has 
ultimately transferred its name. The Thymbra and Thymbrius of 
Strabo were certainly situated near the modern farm of Ak-tchai- 
kioi on the Kimair. 
VOL. IV. 
F 
