Page:Letter from John Turtle Wood to John Winter Jones, 1868-12-22.djvu/1

 December 22nd 1868

Sir,

I have the honor to Report that I recommenced my Excavations of Ephesus on the 29th of October, and have continued them without intermission up to the present time. I have had great difficulty in attaining the number of labourers I wished to employ and have only succeeded hitherto in getting together about 30 men. The cause of this difficulty is the utter prostration of the labouring classes by the annually unhealthy season. I have myself been laid up with fever for 10 days since I commenced my work here, and I have had as many as 5 men ill at the same time.

Notwithstanding these drawbacks, and difficulties, I have succeeded in opening up and exploring more than 1000 feet of the way leading northward from the Magnesian Gates, along the whole length of which I have found the pieces of the Portico