Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/114

86 their native Deutschland. In a corner may be one or two pirates or brigands going up in irons to Constantinople to be executed, or to buy their way out of prison, as the case may turn. These are the chief phenomena that strike a stranger, and it is wonderful to think that this little world, composed of such antagonistic elements, should live so peace- ably on board without diplomatic or consular inter- vention to settle their disputes.

I have been spending a week very agreeably with my friend Mr. Hughes, one of the attachés of the embassy at Constantinople. We made a three days' excursion into the interior of the island on mules, for the purpose of exploring Mount Olympus, which is situated between the two great harbours of Olivieri or Iero and Kalloni. The first part of our route lay across the northern shore of Port Olivieri, where the soil is a rich alluvial deposit, covered with most luxuriant vegetation,—millet, Indian corn, olives, growing intermixed with all manner of rank herbage and rushes, a sign of neglected agriculture and want of drainage. This district has always fever hanging about it in summer. From this place to Ayasso the road ascends gradually, winding along ravines. The variety of trees in these glades forms an agreeable contrast to the district round Mytilene, where the ohve-tree fatigiies the eye from the monotony of its foliage. We halted on our way at a most picturesque spot called Carinæ,—a kind of natural amphitheatre with a large square tank, through which flowed the most abundant and limpid water: all round were giant plane-trees, with trunks