Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/122

94 the village of Kalloni, and halting there for the night, started the next day by an inland road over the mountains for Ereso. I ascended from a picturesque and thickly-wooded country to a wild and barren mountain-tract, which runs all through the western half of the island as far as Cape Sigri. As we climbed the steep mountain-sides, vegetation gradually disappeared. At the summit of the pass I saw about twenty vultures wheeling round and round in the air almost within shot, waiting for an unhappy partridge, which took the opportunity of our arrival to escape. From this high ground is an extensive view over the western part of the island, with Cape Baba, the ancient Lectum Promontorium, in the distance on one side, and Tenedos on the other. The air here was deliciously bracing; in the valleys were strange antiquated villages, full of Turks, who gazed upon us with wondering eyes, as if they had never before seen a European traveller. At the distance of two hours and twenty minutes from Ereso is the village of Kythera, where I was told that at the distance of half an hour among the hills was a place called Tiranda, where inscriptions were to be found.

I arrived at Ereso full of hope, expecting, from the remote situation of this place, to find some remains of the ancient city. But I was told that about fifteen years ago there had been many sculptures, some of which had been carried away by a French traveller, and that the monks of a neighbouring monastery had taken the inscriptions and ground their colours with the inscribed