Gell, William: The geography and antiquities of Ithaca (London, 1807)

56

cient testimony to the high antiquity of the remains on the
hill of Aito. The specimens of masonry are exactly
copied on the spot, and each stone is a faithful portrait.

They are precisely of the same class with the fortifica-
tions of Argos, Tirynthus, and Mycenae, the most ancient
known in Greece, and reputed the work of the Cyclops, in
the time of Pausanias.1 If the walls of Aito be not of near-
ly equal antiquity, yet they must have been erected at a
period very remote.

No. 3 is in such perfect preservation, that a very good
idea may be formed of the species of masonry termed Cy-
clopian, in which, though the stones are apparently rough,
they are even now so exactly united, that in many places
a knife could not be thrust between them. The difficulties
which must have occurred in the nice adaptation of these

masses to each other, were doubtless much increased by
the weight and dimensions of the stones, some of which
are seven feet in length, and three or four in breadth.

Nos. 7 and 5 afford examples of that early state of art,

1 Pausanias Argol. Of the Malls of Argos, Tirynthus, and Mycenae.,
more will be said in a future publication.

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