Early in August 1937 the fragments of a marble Kouros were conveyed in three packing-cases to the National Museum at Athens from Paris, where Greek police officials had received it from M. Roussos, an antique dealer who had been resident in that city for some time. It was subsequently confirmed that this statue had been smuggled out of Greece by sea a few years ago from Anavysos near Laurion, a district whose sparsely populated coast-line has been for years the scene of a systematic traffic in antiques.

The plain of Lasithi (a corruption of La Sitia, a name which in Venetian days included the whole of the eastern end of Crete) lies in the centre of the Dikte massif some 2750 feet above sea-level (Fig. 1). Originally it was probably of a marshy nature, but, owing to the deforestation of the surrounding mountains and the subsequent washing down of the earth from them, a great depth of soil has collected to form a flat plain, which is now one of the most fertile parts of Crete, especially since the introduction on the potato some forty years ago.

The Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, a series founded by the Danish Academy, are now fairly under way. The first facsimile, that of the Vienna Sticherarium, together with handbooks on the Ecphonetic and the Middle Byzantine Notations, have already appeared. The first volume of Transcripta, the Proper Hymns for September, by Prof. Wellesz, has been published, while the November volume has now also come out. The next publication gives the facsimile of the archaic Hirmologus at the Monastery of the Iberians on Mt Athos (under the title Hirmologium Athoum). This series has the support of the International Union of Academies; and the British Academy has given practical help. Fr. J. D. Petresco, a pupil of Prof. Gastoué at Paris, has brought out a musical edition of the chief Byzantine Hymns for Christmas from several good mediaeval MSS. The present writer has shewn in two articles a new principle of decipherment for the Early Byzantine Neumes.

Greece is on the whole a poorly watered country. Its rainfall is comparatively small, and confined to one or two months in the year; its rivers dwindle and its streams disappear altogether except immediately after rain. Consequently the provision of an adequate water supply is always important. In some districts wells must be sunk; but often in more hilly regions a more obvious source of supply is the natural springs which gush out from the rocks.