SIC YON. 543 
manufacture, although perhaps nearly as antient. 
When we first saw them, we believed that .they 
had been made of pale unbaked clay, dried 
only in the sun: upon a nearer examination, we 
perceived that they had once been covered with 
a red glazing, but that this varnish having been 
actually decomposed, had almost disappeared. 
Hence some inference may be deduced as to 
their great antiquity ; instances being hitherto 
unknown of the spontaneous decomposition of 
the varnish upon antient terra-cotta vessels. 
Every person, acquainted with the subject, 
knows, that the most powerful acids produce 
no effect whatsoever upon their surfaces, and 
that some of the oldest terra-cottas yet dis- 
covered in Greece are remarkable for the high 
degree of perfection and lustre exhibited by the 
Hack varnish upon their surfaces. The case 
may be otherwise with the red varnish; and 
perhaps the examples of pottery found in 
Greciaji sepulchres, and believed to have been 
made of unbaked clay, with surfaces which 
moulder beneath the fingers, having a pale 
earthy aspect, may owe this appearance entirely 
to the degree of decomposition they have sus- 
tained. The medals which we collected here 
consisted principally of the bronze coinage of 
Sicyon ; having on one side a Dove represented 
