a finger. The third chamber held lamps and fibulæ in bronze, vases in
alabaster, and, above all, the groups and vessels modelled in clay;
while the fourth was the repository of the utensils in bronze, and of
a certain number which were either in copper or in iron. In the further
passage, which was not completely explored, there were nevertheless
found seven kettles in bronze."[647]

In the construction of the walls of their towns, especially of those
which were the most ancient, the feature which is most striking at
first sight is that on which some remarks have already been made, the
attachment of the lower portion of the wall to the soil from which the
wall springs. At Sidon, at Aradus, and at Semar-Gebeil, the _enceinte_
which protected the town consisted, up to the height of ten or twelve
feet, of native rock, cut to a perpendicular face, upon which were
emplaced several courses of hewn stone. The principle adopted was to
utilise the rock as far as possible, and then to supplement what was
wanting by a superstructure of masonry. Large blocks of stone, shaped to
fit the upper surface of the rock, were laid upon it, generally endways,
that is, with their smallest surface outwards, their length forming the
thickness of the wall, which was sometimes as much as fifteen or twenty
feet.[648] The massive blocks, once placed, were almost immovable, and
it was considered enough to lay them side by side, without clamps or
mortar, since their own weight kept them in place. It was not thought
of much consequence whether the joints of the courses coincided or not;
though care was taken that, if a coincidence occurred in two courses,
it should not be repeated in the third.[649] The elevation of walls
does not seem to have often exceeded from thirty to forty feet, though
Diodorus makes the walls of Carthage sixty feet high,[650] and Arrian
gives to the wall of Tyre which faced the continent the extraordinary
height of a hundred and fifty feet.[651]