Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/229

Rh the sea and fifty-two metres above the bottom of Lake Copais. Across this depression, from near the openings of the Katabothra of Bynia in the Bay of Kephalari, runs a line of ancient wells or shafts in a general direction from southwest to northeast, not in a straight line, but following the contour of the hill, ending on the east side not far from where the katabothra opens into the Valley of Larymna. There are sixteen of these wells, cut through the hard, gray limestone of which the mountain is composed, and carefully squared, with an average horizontal section of three to four metres. The first shaft, on the west side, is five hundred metres from the lake; the sixteenth, on the east side, two hundred and twenty-five metres from the opening. The wells are at an average distance from each other of about one hundred and sixty metres, and the whole distance from opening to opening is about twenty-four hundred metres.

These shafts are not mentioned by any ancient writer, but have been frequently described by modern travelers, notably by Forchhammer, who has given the most complete description



of them. The general conclusion in regard to their object was that they were designed to facilitate the clearing of the katabothra when, from caving or other causes, it had become clogged; but in 1846, M. Sauvage, who examined the shafts critically and cleared several of them, came to the conclusion that they were part of a tunnel scheme, and were sunk with the purpose of giving many points of attack to the workmen engaged in excavating the tunnel instead of a single one at each end. To the ancients, ignorant of the use of explosives, this was of great importance, for the cutting with hammer and chisel was arduous and slow. Even with these numerous shafts, which must themselves have been a difficult undertaking, the excavation of so long a tunnel would have cost the labor of many years. In 1882 several more were cleared and thoroughly examined—the first and the second on the west slope toward the lake and the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth on the east slope of the hill. The first