tition ensues, the last bidder being the purchaser: but he gives only the price offered by the preceding bidder, his further advance merely indicating his anxiety to possess the lot. The tenure on which the land is held by the cultivator is by no means oppressive; one-seventh of the produce is claimed by the governor of the district, as satisfaction for the rent, tax, and all charges whatsoever.

Our European costume was not here the novelty I expected; in the fair were two or three Greeks similarly attired; they were dealers in leeches, and the singularity of their trade deserves notice. The introduction of strangers, and especially of intelligent Greeks, may hereafter add to our knowledge of these hitherto unvisited parts. Three or four years ago the trade in leeches was scarcely known, except for the use of the village; this inhabitant of the swamp has now become an important contributor to the revenue of the Sultan. Two years ago I met an Italian collecting and shipping them from Adalia, undisturbed by any law: from that time the privilege of buying them from the peasants has been farmed out by the Sultan, and several companies of merchants in Constantinople purchase certain districts for the year, and send agents round to buy up the collections at such prices as he may agree upon with the people. The agent here said that his employers had given a sum equal to fifteen thousand pounds for this district, which I found extended over almost the whole track we had traversed. How strange that two such important trades as that in leeches and gall-nuts should have their origin in such minute productions of the animal world! Many vessels are freighted to America and all parts of Europe with leeches. only, and in almost every steamboat I have observed that a great part of its cargo consisted of these animals, which are the constant care of the merchants accompanying them, as they frequently require ventilation in the hold of the vessel. The trade is a great speculation, and the calculation is made.

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upon the loss of an immense proportion of the stock. The capture, transport, and calculated mortality, bring to my mind the treatment of the Negroes.

In my former Journal I attempted to describe the peculiarities of a Turkish market; the animation and gaiety of the scene can scarcely be over-drawn. The present one had the additional effect of animals grazing for a mile around in every direction-camels, horses, and asses. I should estimate the number of the latter useful animals (for almost every man had his ass) at not less than two thousand; the camels generally bore merchandize for sale. At noon a crier proclaimed the market to be ended, and all the people gradually departed; some to very distant places, but most to the various villages skirting this extensive plain.

For some distance round the village of Carreeuke, as well as built into the walls of its mosques, were many sculptured remains and fragments of inscriptions, but all appeared to be of a late Greek date; some had patterns showing a fanciful taste, but not of a simple or pure age.

The soil of the plain as we approached Carreeuke became very light and arid, and the crops consequently less promising; not a stone was to be seen, the wide dusty track of the road showed a white sandy soil, and the earth sounded hollow beneath the horses' feet: no rivers or streams are seen near this end of the valley. The whole was explained by a deep ditch cut across our path: the soil was precisely similar to that of the greater part of the plains on the table-lands of Phrygia forming the centre of Asia Minor-fragments of pumice and other volcanic dust, united by the deposits of lime, making a spongy porous earth totally unfit for vegetation: time and exposure to the air had coated the surface with more mixed soil, and upon this a scanty crop is produced. On approaching the hills the soil is far better, and during a short season in the year (for the snows have only disappeared within the last three weeks) this district

must contribute an important part to the produce of the country.

Leaving Carreeuke, and proceeding toward the north, we passed on our right, successively, Yarseer, Gewmoos-cooe, Ghiassar, and Seechalik; and on our left, the large village of Koosil Hissar, nearly at the north end of the valley.

May 22nd, Denizlee.-We have proceeded about twentyfive miles north of our encampment last night, on leaving which spot we ascended a ridge of hills for half an hour. A perfectly new and splendid view then burst upon us, and showed me at once that I had completed a circuit in my travels, as I now recognized before me the peculiar features of the hills of Hierapolis and the valleys of the Lycus and Mæander. On the left, and close to us, rose Mount Cadmus, with its snows; on the right, a mountain almost as high, and of the same range, called by the Turks Honas-dah ; before us was a rich-looking valley, rapidly descending to the extended plain of the bed of the Lycus; beyond this rose the dark mountains of the Catacecaumene, from which the Mæander flows to the valley of the Lycus.

Viewed even at a distance, the peculiar geological features of this district are apparent: afar off we distinctly saw the white patches deposited by the waters of Hierapolis, and giving origin to the Turkish names Pambook or Tambook Kallasy-signifying Cotton or Pall Castle; and beneath us extended the bare range of sand-hills flanking the mountain on the southern side of the valley, and in which Laodiceia is situated. The wasting hills down which our course lay were very similar to those in the parallel but wider valley of the Mosynus, the mass being generally composed of fragments, principally volcanic, united by aqueous deposits. Some of these deposits give a singular and beautiful appearance to the soil, changing as abruptly as the strata at Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight, and varying in colour sometimes from the deepest crimson to a delicate pink, at others deepening from

the pale yellow of sulphur to the rich brown of umber. Small streams cut deep into these sandy soils; and we often saw by our path rippling waters in a bed scarcely ten feet wide, and at a depth of fifty or sixty feet. These streams all flow to the richly-wooded plain in which stands the large town of Denizlee.

The inhabitants of this place, which ranks among the largest towns in Turkey, we saw under peculiar circumstances: the usually peaceable and industrious people had almost all deserted the town, and the few who were left had shut themselves within their walls, and with closed gates were awaiting the attack of an enemy. In the town there appeared but little power of resistance; but all the bazaars. were shut, and the people seemed watchful and uneasy.

We soon learned that the governor, who was of the old school, did not approve the new system of government, and had levied taxes upon the district contrary to the powers of his Firman, which law is always accessible to the eye of the people, and is periodically read to them in public. The sum demanded of the people by the governor was double the amount assigned by the Sultan: they had remonstrated in wain, and at last sent a statement of their grievances to Constantinople, declaring their willingness to pay any sum the Sultan required. The deputation was however waylaid by the servants of the governor, and the petition torn to pieces before their faces. This illegal conduct made the Turks more determined to be heard: the petition was again written, and sent guarded by a thousand of the inhabitants. The governor, anticipating his certain fate, had fled, saying that he was going to the Pasha for soldiers, and would return and punish them. The people, from the justice which is shown to all appeals to the Sultan, appeared to me to have less cause to fear the threats of their oppressor, than he had to dread the consequences of his venturing to return. While here we have heard of a striking instance of the promptness

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and severity of the punishment inflicted upon men in authority for acts of oppression. Tahir Pasha, the generalissimo of all the Pashas of Anatolia, and the active-minded king of Idin, whom we saw but two months ago in all his power, has oppressed the people of some villages in his district, probably, among others, the village of Chi-cooe, which we had visited; he is in consequence removed, and deprived of all power and honour, thankful to have his life and liberty spared and live as a private man. I have no doubt this is good policy; by a bold stroke the Sultan has removed a too powerful subject, and given confidence to the people of his sincerity in carrying out his new system, a principal feature in which is that the government emanates solely from himself.

Denizlee has few early ruins, although many walls built of a rough conglomerate of stones and vegetable matter, massed together by lime, are scattered about the neighbourhood; portions of the walls of the town are also of an early date, but these are all much later than the numerous blocks, columns, and fragments of white marble seen in the burialgrounds and in every street, which, I find, are all brought from Laodiceia, scarcely an hour's distance to the north: we propose to proceed thither to-morrow.

May 23rd. We have here parted with our Cavass, as he is near his home, and his horses are too much jaded, by the heat of the weather and long travel, to proceed further. We have agreed with two Turks and a Greek to accompany us hence to Smyrna in five days: the price we pay is a fixed sum, and I observe in our suite an extra mule loaded with packsaddles, that the whole stud may return with merchandize from Smyrna.

I have spoken of the ruins of Laodiceia in my former Journal. Two years ago, as I approached this spot, nothing was seen but vultures and the wild and solitary bustard; the only trace of man was a few chips of marble broken from the