plants* were blossoming on the winterly stems of the wild pear-tree. By half-past twelve we had ridden six post hours, or about twenty-three miles, and arrived at Triandeer, a few huts on the bank of a river, which we had previously crossed about six miles from this place. We here learned that our baggage, which had kept the direct road from Smyrna, and which we fancied was before us, had not yet passed. We therefore waited an hour at the café, which, with an adjoining hut, frequently serves as a halting-place on the first day's jour ney towards Idin. Biendeer, the place of our destination for the evening, was still distant seven hours. About five miles on the way, the track lay through several Turkish burialgrounds, each containing remains of ancient sculptured marbles-columns, cornices, and squared stones. One of these, bearing an inscriptiont, could not have been moved far from its original site. Its first intention may have been to commemorate the course of a great conqueror; at present it marks the grave of some unknown Yourook, or herdsman, whose race occupy the black goats-hair tents scattered over the widely extended plains. The country for several hours before us was perfectly level, forming as it were an immense lake, bounded on the south by the long range of Mount Messogis, whose promontory (the ancient Trogilium), with its detached island of Samos, is concealed by the ranges of intervening hills rising behind the ancient Colophon and Teos in the west. To the east the range of Mount Tmolus rises, with its barren crags capped with snow. Perhaps no valley in the world would produce more than this if well cultivated. The quantity of olives grown on the sloping base of the mountains is very great, but the rich plains are abandoned to the sheep or goats, and in the more swampy parts the buffalo is seen wallowing in the marshes. * Clematis cirrhosa (Evergreen Virgin's Bower). Before eight o'clock, after a ride of nearly fifty miles upon the same horses, we arrived at Biendeer, a town which seems only occupied in crushing the produce of the surrounding forest of olive-trees. The oil from this district ranks high in the Smyrna market; and this, as well as other articles of merchandize sold there, has within the last three years risen to four times the price formerly paid. February 29th.-The situation of Biendeer, a large Turkish village with four minaretted mosques, is very beautiful, commanding a view of the wonderfully fine valley in which we travelled yesterday, and across which our road continues to-day, to the large town of Thera, about eleven miles distant, which is distinctly visible to the S.S.E. on the steep side of the Messogis mountain. Saturday Evening.—I have just returned to my room in the picturesque Greek khan at Thera. What a country we have passed through to-day!—teeming with produce, and promising a still greater abundance to more active cultivation. For three or four miles before we crossed the river Caystrus, the plains were covered with the stems of last year's cotton plants, and the rich soil is again yielding to agricultural implements* of the same form as those which tilled it more than two thousand years ago, while the seeds of another crop are scattered over it. Crossing the very considerable river by a newly built bridge, the land gradually rises, and is well cultivated with corn; and ascending still further up a slight range of rocky mounds, we found them covered with vines and in high cultivation. These continued, as we travelled over this undulating ground, until we arrived in front of the long and beautifully situated town of Thera, the minarets of whose mosques (of which we counted twenty-eight) are scattered over a range of nearly two miles. This town, which occupies the site of the ancient Caystrus, is built on so steep an acclivity, that almost every house is * See Journal of 1838, p. 52. visible, peering above its neighbour's roof; the cypress and plane, of splendid growth, enrich the whole extent of the place. In the streets, as is often the case in Turkish towns, are rapid streams of water, up which we rode, and crossed several well-stored bazaars. The most striking articles exposed for sale were the largest grapes I ever saw; these are grown in the neighbourhood in great quantities, for the making of raisins, which, from being sent to the port of Smyrna, acquire the name well known in our shops of Smyrna raisins: each grape is as large as a nutmeg, and on sending a man with a piaster and a half (not quite 31⁄2d.), to purchase some for us, he returned with two okes and a halfabout seven pounds weight. Each bunch is plaited with a cord of rushes, and in the manufacture of raisins these strings of fruit are dipped into boiling water several times, and then hung up in cool cellars for three months; when taken down they are fit for the market. Our whole route from Smyrna has been crossing or following valleys; no hill, excepting a slight rise out of the town of Smyrna, has interrupted our course. In this tract the geologist finds little to interest him; the soil is alluvial, and generally mixed with stones, the debris of the neighbouring mountains, which vary from the simple marble limestone to the tortuous slaty stone, shivered by volcanic heat, and glittering with schisty micaceous particles. The castle hill, near Smyrna, is an igneous rock of spurious granite; several tracks of bare rock on the valley are composed of massed pebbles or pudding-stone, probably of recent formation. The soil is generally light, but near the immediate valley of the Caystrus it is a simple sand, of considerable depth, with scarcely a pebble. Thera stands on a range of mountain limestone, much baked and distorted by volcanic powers, and frequently veined with a crystallized white marble or quartz-like substance, often tinged with ferruginous colouring. I have added several plants to my collection, but none strike me as peculiar to this district. I see the black Iris in the turbans and hands of the peasants, but have not yet gathered it myself; the Christ's-thorn and a kind of broom form the bushy tufts of the country. On Sunday, the 1st of March, we started at nine o'clock for Idin; our cavalcade consisted of two Zoorigees, men who have the charge of the horses and the three loads of baggage. I followed, with my friends Mr. Hesketh and Mr. Scharf, attended by Pagniotti Mania, as servant and dragoman; and in the rear was a Kezann, or officer of the police, well mounted and superbly armed. This addition to our train was insisted upon by the Governor as a guard of honour: I wished to decline it as unnecessary, but he said that the roads were in a dangerous state, (meaning from the late rains, I believe,) and that we had better have assistance in case of need. Thus, with ten horses, we commenced our route up the narrow streets, which are so steep that many literally rise in steps. On arriving a little above the town we paused, as such trains are often obliged to do, to re-arrange the baggage. From this point we had a fine view of this curiously situated and extensive city; its position is highly picturesque, and resembles the other ancient sites now occupied by the modern towns of Manser and Kootaya; they all face the north. Although this is doubtless the site of Caystrus, scarcely a trace of the ancient city is to be found; a few columns and capitals of white marble, built into the walls, are all that remain to tell of the former important city. An ascent through woods of olive-trees showed another abundant source of wealth to this people, so highly favoured by nature. Our route lay directly to the south, and we breasted the steep ascent most boldly. I have never, excepting on this same range, in the pass from the ancient Priene over the Trogilium promontory, ascended so steep a track; in many instances we were obliged to tack at every twenty yards, doubling our own course; affording those in the rear a col lective view of our diversified cavalcade, all in slow motion, and shifting as the objects in a kaleidescope. One of our party, dismounting to collect some plants, had left his horse to keep its place in the train; but cutting across an angle in the road, it thrust itself between the baggage-horses, which were connected by cords: this checked them, and as the narrow grip worn in the rock was scarcely wide enough for their feet to pass each other, they all stumbled, and fell in confusion. My experience told me that our progress was stayed for fully an hour. Our Turk Kezann was also aware of this, for he immediately dismounted, and, sitting on the rock, prepared his pipe for an hour's repose and meditation on the interruption. The poor animals were unloaded, and with difficulty lifted up; a few cuts, and slight exhaustion from struggling, were all the ill effects beside the delay. During our detention we were passed by a Turkish family travelling towards Idin: the female of the party afforded the annexed subject for the pencil. |