These notos are a result of a short tour in the autumn of 1896 through the coastlands north of the Aegean from Xerxes' canal to the Hebrus. Professor W. C. F. Anderson of Firth College, Sheffield, accompanied me. and gave much valuable help. Of the inscriptions which we copied the following seem to be either unknown, or imperfectly published or described, If I have overlooked a previous publication of any of them, I may plead the difficulty of finding out what has or has not been edited.

1. Hierissos (Acanthus): in a wall near the Byzantine gate on the acropolis. Fragment of coarse marble block, 1 foot 11 inches high, 10 inches broad. Letters about 3½ inches. Published by Cousinéry, Voyage dans la Macédoine, t. II., p. 151; by Boeckh, C.I.G. 2007k; and, the epigraphic text only, by Le Bas, No. 1414.

I believe that the right half of the stone has been cut away. If so, it is better to read with Cousinéry than with Boeckh. The stone may have marked the boundary of public land.

2. Lympiada: in a wall on the beach. Rough block of granite, 3 feet 3 inches long, 1 foot 7 inches high. Letters 5½ to 3 inches, irregular and much weathered.

The monument represented in the dimensions of the original by tbe annexed figure (Fig. 1) was acquired by Mr. Arthur Evans in Corfú, in 1895, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum. It is a piece of bronze, irregularly oblong in shape, measuring 4⅞ in. in length by 1 to l⅛ in. in breadth, and ⅜ to in. in thickness. Each of the four long surfaces is decorated with a series of incised patterns separated by bands of ornament. There can be no doubt as to the destination of the object, which was evidently intended to serve as a mould for the manufacture of plaques, diadems, &c., in repoussé. A series of gold plaques (Figs. 2–5) have been executed from the mould by Mr. Ready, and are exhibited beside the original in the Ashmolean Museum. At the same time it may well have been used for work in other metals, such as the thin sheets of bronze used for the well-known ‘Argo-Corinthian’ plaques which furnish the nearest analogies to the subjects of our monument.

The past year has not been productive of any momentous discovery, excepting only the bronze statue at Delphi, which will be described more fully in its own place; but a great amount of useful work has been done in various directions, and, indeed, the great variety of what has been achieved may be regarded as the characteristic feature of the year.

In Athens, the excavations in the neighbourhood of the Pnyx and the Areopagus have reached their third season. In the later months of 1894 the entire shrine which Dörpfeld identifies as that of Dionysos was laid bare, with its temple, altar, and wine-press. The archaic structure seems to have been in existence down to late Greek times, when its site was covered by a building which is identified by an inscription as the assembly house of the Iobacchi. From the different methods of construction which can be traced in the walls, it would seem that this building must have stood for a long period; the base of the altar, belonging to the earlier stage, is fairly well preserved; it consisted of a table supported on four slender columns, replaced later by four larger supports; at one side on the step are sinkings for two stelæ; Dörpfeld points out that according to Demosthenes (?) (Neaera, 76) the oath which the Gerairai had to swear at the sacred marriage of the Basilinna in the Anthesteria was inscribed on a stelè set up an expression which suits the proposed identification.

The operations at Melos of the British School, between March 20th and the end of May, were mainly tentative in character; the island contains evidently a large number of ancient sites, but unfortunately, in most of them, a great deal of unsystematic and unrecorded digging has been for a long time carried on. It seemed, therefore, desirable to ascertain, first, whether it would be necessary to continue for more than one season; and, secondly, what sites would best repay investigation. Our first researches were directed to the shore of the little bay of Klima, which lies at the foot of the hill on which the theatre and many other traces of the old town are still distinguishable. The fact that part of this ground (the property of the Government) was said to have yielded the celebrated statue of Poseidon, now in the National Museum, as well as other statues (one of which is still lying in situ), and was otherwise said to be unexcavated, seemed to warrant our choice; the more so as the Government had made this excavation a condition of their permission. Here, then, on March 20th, we began (site A, fig. 2); at the same time I received permission to break ground at another promising site (site B) in the opposite side of the delta, where the gardener, in sinking a well-shaft, had come upon traces of a marble pavement with two bases resting upon it.