DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0160
1872.] PLATFORM ON THE NORTH. 99
there are other considerable expenses to be defrayed, so
that the total cost of my excavations amounts to no less
than 300 fr. (12/.) daily.
Now in order to be sure, in every case, of thoroughly
solving the Trojan question this year, I am having an
immense horizontal platform made on the steep northern
slope, which rises at an angle of 40 degrees, a height
of 105 feet perpendicular, and 131 feet above the level
of the sea. The platform extends through the entire hill,
at an exact perpendicular depth of 14 meters or 465
English feet, it has a breadth of 79 meters or 233 Eng-
lish feet, and embraces my last year's cutting.* M. Laurent
calculates the mass of matter to be removed at 78,545
cubic meters (above 100,000 cubic yards): it will be less
if I should find the native soil at less than 46 feet, and
greater if I should have to make the platform still lower.
It is above all things necessary for me to reach the primary
soil, in order to make accurate investigations. To make
the work easier, after having had the earth on the
northern declivity picked down in such a manner
that it rises perpendicularly to the height of about
83 feet from the bottom, and after that at an angle of
50 degrees, I continue to have the dibris of the mighty
earth wall loosened in such a manner that this angle always
remains exactly the same. In this way I certainly work
three times more rapidly than before, when, on account of
the small breadth of the channel, I was forced to open it
°n the summit of the hill in a direct horizontal direction
along its entire length. In spite of every precaution, how-
ler, I am unable to guard my men or myself against the
stones which continually come rolling down, when the
steep wall is being picked away. Not one of us is without
several wounds in his feet.
During the first three days of the excavations, in
* See the Frontispiece and Plan II.
H 2
there are other considerable expenses to be defrayed, so
that the total cost of my excavations amounts to no less
than 300 fr. (12/.) daily.
Now in order to be sure, in every case, of thoroughly
solving the Trojan question this year, I am having an
immense horizontal platform made on the steep northern
slope, which rises at an angle of 40 degrees, a height
of 105 feet perpendicular, and 131 feet above the level
of the sea. The platform extends through the entire hill,
at an exact perpendicular depth of 14 meters or 465
English feet, it has a breadth of 79 meters or 233 Eng-
lish feet, and embraces my last year's cutting.* M. Laurent
calculates the mass of matter to be removed at 78,545
cubic meters (above 100,000 cubic yards): it will be less
if I should find the native soil at less than 46 feet, and
greater if I should have to make the platform still lower.
It is above all things necessary for me to reach the primary
soil, in order to make accurate investigations. To make
the work easier, after having had the earth on the
northern declivity picked down in such a manner
that it rises perpendicularly to the height of about
83 feet from the bottom, and after that at an angle of
50 degrees, I continue to have the dibris of the mighty
earth wall loosened in such a manner that this angle always
remains exactly the same. In this way I certainly work
three times more rapidly than before, when, on account of
the small breadth of the channel, I was forced to open it
°n the summit of the hill in a direct horizontal direction
along its entire length. In spite of every precaution, how-
ler, I am unable to guard my men or myself against the
stones which continually come rolling down, when the
steep wall is being picked away. Not one of us is without
several wounds in his feet.
During the first three days of the excavations, in
* See the Frontispiece and Plan II.
H 2