On the panel of one is an inscription, but rendered nearly illegible by the filtering of the water through the rocks above, which has deposited so much stalactitic matter, as to bear down with it even the portion of the solid rock forming the projecting ornaments.

184

ROUTE

CHAPTER IX.

CARIA.

BY DOLLOMON, KOOGEZ, HOOLA.-VARIATION OF SEASON.MOOLA. GIPSIES.-STRATONICEIA.-ITS RUINS AND INSCRIPTIONS.

-MYLASA.-PRIMITIVE MODE OF FELLING TIMBER.-LABRANDA.KIZZLEJIK AND BAFFY TO MILETUS.-ITS RUINS.-INHOSPITALITY OF THE PEASANTRY.-AFTERWARDS EXPLAINED.

April 24th.-AFTER a delightful ride of above forty miles, I am in my tent at Dollomón. tent at Dollomón. The route for the first six miles was over plains, but we soon entered a most beautiful series of wooded mountains, with bold cliffs rising above finely grown trees. At intervals we came upon narrow valleys of rich pasture, with crystal streams winding towards the sea, which frequently opened upon us to the left, but so intersected by promontories and islands as to present the appearance of lakes. No part of Asia Minor that I have seen is so picturesque as the whole of this district, throughout which the hills are well wooded from their tops to the sea.

These hills are of a schisty limestone, much coloured by a red ochry deposit from the water, which filters through it. Vegetation is here far more luxuriant, but I have noticed few new species of plants; there are some curious varieties of the cyclamen, candytuft, and wild lavender. The lilac and white cistus grow four or five feet high, and are very full of

I see

bloom, as is also the wild sage. The heath is almost a tree, being ten feet high, with a stem as thick as my arm. a great number of plants with a white leaf, like flannel, which grows as luxuriantly as the acanthus, but none are yet in bloom*. On all the mountains in this district the scarlet lichen clothes the rocks.

My collection of birds has received an addition to-day in the bee-eater, of which we have shot several specimens; its plumage is beautiful. The bees make their nests upon the turpentine firs, which cover the hills, and from which they gather much honey; and these birds follow them in flocks, flying very quickly, making a loud clear chirp while on the wing, like starlings, but more sonorous, and generally settling upon the fir-trees. Hitherto the magpies have been in such numbers as to annoy us; I have counted thirty or forty together. The common jay gradually succeeded them; and now the most frequent bird, which is scarcely ever out of hearing, is the beautiful blue jay or roller, amusing us constantly by making somersets in the air like the tumbler pigeon. I have seen the common brown partridge today for the first time.

April 25th.-We are now at Koógez, twenty-five miles further to the north-west, and on the way towards Moóla. I am perfectly lost in the maps, which have no resemblance to the country either in form, rivers, or names of places. On leaving Dollomón, after crossing one very large and another small river, we ascended a considerable mountain, and by two o'clock looked down upon a splendid lake, or rather bay, for the water is brackish, a neck twelve miles in length connecting it with the sea; it is six or eight miles across, and a number of small streams run into it, but no river of any name. I observed up these streams, at perhaps six or eight miles' distance from the brackish water, the

* Salvia æthiopis.

sea-crab, apparently enjoying the fresh clear water of the

stream.

All the governors in this district are the remnant of the old Derebbes, whose power but a few years ago threatened that of the Sultan; they were then continually at war with one another. The sudden destruction of the Janissaries, and since then the equally certain but more gradual extermination of the independent families of the Derebbes, have secured the quiet state of the country, and perhaps the stability of the government. At my halting-place last night, as well as here, the Governor's palace or establishment formed the whole village; in it the post was conducted, and in fact there was no other house in the place. The father of the Governor here was a Derebbe of great power and importance; his house, which has now half of its quadrangle in ruins, would have accommodated many hundred dependents, and adjoining was another ruin of a large barrack. Ten ships of war, subject to his command, then floated in the lake, and all the country around was dependent upon him, and served him through fear. The power of the family is now extinguished, and I am lodged in one of the half-ruined apartments of the palace. The Governor is very civil, but throughout this southern part of the country I find the firman is looked upon in quite a different light from what it is where the Sultan's new policy is more rapidly working its way. But some progress has been made here; for a few years ago my lodging would have been a prison, or the hold of a lawless brigand or pirate. All these families know that the Sultan is watching them, and only waiting for some breach of the law on their part, or other pretext, to deprive them entirely of power; and this knowledge has completely cowed these. haughty chiefs.

On a small island near the shore of this lake or bay are five or six cottages of Greeks, and a ruin of an early Christian church. The cross represented on the early Christian

buildings is always of the form here drawn, which is very similar to the one shown at Ravenna as a relic of that æra. The Greeks have here their little place of worship. In this colony I observed a marked peculiarity, namely a litter of pigs, the only specimen of this animal that I have. seen; probably they are the only ones in Asia Minor, for the Turks object to the animal, alive or dead, as unclean.

April 26th.-Five mares, each with its foal, were brought at seven o'clock to carry us to Hoóla, forty miles distant. They had been fetched eight or ten miles from the tents of their owners, the Chingunees or gipsies, who are here the principal inhabitants of the mountains. We halted at one of their tents as we passed, to arrange our baggage; and the women, who were unveiled, displayed a strength as great as, and an activity far greater than, would be found in the tents of the Turks. During our short pause a number of women and their children assembled round us. What a study for a Rembrandt or a Murillo in the singular but extreme beauty of some of the group! There was a mother with her child, perhaps five years old, dark as a negro, but of a far healthier and richer colour, almost veiled by its wild hair, which had never been cut, and perhaps never combed; its neck was hung with beads, coins, and various chains; its very few clothes hung loosely, leaving the arms and legs bare. The