In reference to specimen No. 3, there is one particular which we should not omit to refer to. The ring closing the _a_ (section 8), has a second hole bored at a little distance lower, and so gives a note flatter than that which the chief opening emits. In fact, we have a second _g_♯, which is a little higher, and establishes two quarters of a tone between _g_ and _a_, and the _g_ itself it is remarked is too low by a quarter of a tone. The various skips fixed by the closed holes cannot be without meaning. In one instance, we find a skip of a fourth; and the minor or neuter third, which I remarked upon as common to the earlier flutes as a fixed interval, and for some reason or other preserved, is also exemplified; in No. 4, we have D♯ to F♯, and again all sounds closed for the fourth between F♯ and A♯; and in No. 1, all sounds closed between D and G. One wonders whether we have not some reminiscence of an earlier pentatonic scale in these, some traits by inheritance and tradition. Travellers in Persia have remarked that the singers seem to have a custom of making a drop of a fourth in the two concluding notes of their song; and the people in that land of the rose and the bulbul are passionately fond of song, and gather together, sitting out half the night in the open air, listening to song following song. All national traits are worth studying, and very often simple things render true clear light to the investigator. All the details respecting the construction, the scales, and the conditions of these Pompeian flutes, we owe to M. Charles Victor Mahillon, who, travelling with M. Gevaert, the Director of the Conservatoire of Music at Brussels, found these unheeded relics of the musical art in a corner at the Naples Museum; and, fired with enthusiasm, was able, by his recognized position, to obtain the necessary permission to fulfil his desire, which was to make copies of them for a full investigation of their musical nature. He made most exact copies, down to the minutest details, and so enriched the museum which has long been under his fostering care, and increased the world’s knowledge because enthusiasm was allied to practical skill. As Nature goes on in the same old way, never changing her laws or her behaviour, we can hear from these models the same tones as were heard by the Greeks, centuries ago; the flutes are faithful even to the pitch, for a pipe preserves its interior diameter, and is a true record which age does not imperil. In this respect, the wind instruments have the advantage over the stringed kind. The shapes of the Greek lyres we know from the vases, and from the paintings and sculpture; but of the nature of the strings and their tension, and the amount of sound elicited from the sounding-board, we remain in ignorance, and our best surmises fail to explain or account for the effects attributed to the skill of the players on these instruments.