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which I am not aware as having been heretofore noticed as an animal peculiar to this island.

The ancient harbour is now only deep enough to admit the small coasting craft. Here it is supposed the celebrated Colossus stood, and the remains of some ancient cyclopean masonry, running out into the water on both sides of the entrance, rather strengthens this opinion. On the land side this is now submerged, but on that where the harbour is walled off from the sea, it rises several feet above the surface, and is a continuation of the ancient breakwater, which still exists. The space between the remains of the two buttresses is from twenty-five to twentyseven yards. A figure constructed on this, and with its legs spread without straining, would measure one hundred and fifty feet in height, an elevation quite sufficient to admit under it any vessels used in that day.

The Básha and his son visited us, and kindly offered us a piece of timber for a jib-boom, for he possessed the only spars that could be procured here. He was a fat, punchy, goodhumoured man, and subject to an evil influence very little known among Mohammadans-gynocracy. His wife is said to be a woman of considerable talent, and it is the interest of her friends at Constantinople that keeps her husband in the bashalick. She was a widow, and if report speaks true, exercises over the old gentleman more power than we are willing to assign to the mistress of a hareem. On returning his visit next day, we were received with considerable state. The apartment, like those of most other junior Báshas, was large, airy, and furnitureless. His highness sat in the right-hand corner, not cross-legged, but resting on his toes and knees, and took particular pains to hide his feet, the exposure of which he would have considered a monstrous breach of etiquette. A host of attendants served us with refreshments, consisting of sweetmeats, a spoonful of which was handed round to each on a small glass plate-then a tumbler of rose water; after this, another batch of servants handed (kneeling on one knee) first to the Básha, and then to each of the company, an amber-headed pipe of the most costly description; and presently the coffee was brought in by one of the most portly, noble-looking fellows I think I ever beheld. The cups were ranged on a large tray along with the coffee-pot; and a magnificent gold-embroidered muslin napkin thrown over all. He

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stood in the middle of the room, and throwing the napkin with an air of supreme dignity over his right shoulder, poured the fragrant beverage into the cups held by one of the attendants, who presented them to the guests according to his ideas of their respective ranks. His excellency talked a great deal about nautical affairs, requested permission for his carpenter to measure the Crusader, and stated his intention of having a yacht built exactly similar! He has now a vessel on the stocks, which he said he would have launched before we left, to afford us an opportunity of seeing how well the Turks can manage such matters.

With the dress of the Básha and his suite I was any thing but pleased, for it was both unbecoming in itself, unsuited to their persons, and worn with an awkwardness that gave them a most ludicrous appearance. It consisted of wide bag trousers-red, pointed slippers-a long, ill-made, loose, blue cloth bed-gown, like a surtout, buttoned to the throat in front, and behind gathered into large plaits by a broad strap, like a soldier's great-coat; the head was covered by a high turboosh, which was pulled down on a level with the eyebrows, and at top crowned with a tassel of blue silk flock, in which was twisted a bit of white paper cut in openwork. The troops were dressed much in the same style. I witnessed their manoeuvering several times during my stay, and at once perceived their vast inferiority, both in discipline and expertness, to the soldiers of Mohammad Alee. The garrison consisted of seven hundred soldiers of the line, and six hundred artillery. The men were older and of a larger size than the Egyptians.

Along the shores of Rhodes, especially near the consular residences, a phenomenon occurs that is well deserving of attention. You are conducted to what, at a little distance, appears the usual water-marked beach, of rough gravel and sand peculiar to these coasts, but on stepping on it you are surprised to find it to be one solid mass, hard as adamant, and composed of rolled pebbles, cemented together by a substance which, on being broken, has every appearance of finely mixed mortar of a whitish-grey colour, having its interstices filled up with minute particles of sand. The upper exposed surface has a smooth, mottled appearance, like the conglomerate denominated plumb-pudding stone; and so very closely and compactly is the whole bound together, that in some of the older formations it takes a polish little inferior to marble.

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The delusive character of this great petrified beach is further increased by the number of indentures formed by the ripple of the retiring wave; so that at first sight we might be led to suppose that it was the work of an instant. It is curious that the process of consolidation occurs only in those places where the water reaches, either by the insignificant rise of the tide, or where it is washed over it by the surf, which is in some places very violent; and where the water does not reach, the gravel is again loose and uncemented. In some places the water has undermined it, and thrown up large masses of the rock upon the shore; and underneath that the gravel is also unconnected. Some specimens which I brought home with me show the binding principle to be carbonate of lime, with a slight trace of strontian.

Captain Beaufort mentions a petrified beach of a similar character on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, at Cape Krio, Phaselis, Selinty, &c. and has well said, that "the unwary boat that should mistake it for a common beach of yielding materials, and should run upon it before a following surf, might be fatally apprised of its error."

During our stay, I witnessed a Turkish funeral. The person died in the morning; the body was washed immediately, and in about three hours after it was on its way to the tomb. A number of women had proceeded there some time before, and had ranged themselves at some distance from the grave; and, as soon as the procession approached, they commenced a low howling dirge. The body was carried without a coffin on a rude bier, and, when laid by the grave-side, all the people knelt down, and the Moullah, seated at some distance from the rest, repeated parts of the Kooran. The bier was then rudely torn open, and the remains deposited in the earth, along with a small cake, and a piece of money. It is strange how long this pagan custom has been re

tained here.

19th. We witnessed the ceremony of launching the Básha's vessel this morning, and a most stirring, interesting sight it was; the whole population of the place had turned out to see it, and the ladies of the viceregal hareem were all ranged along a wall at a considerable distance from the scene of action, and no male ventured to approach where they were. The prevailing colour of their dresses was yellow. When all was ready, and the slips and ropes were about to be removed, the two principal Moullahs

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came forward, and invoked a blessing on the vessel, and then repeated portions of the Kooran, in the chorus or responses of which the whole Mooslim assemblage joined. Many of the people knelt down, and the whole formed a most imposing ceremony. There was also music; one instrument was something between a fiddle and a mandolin, with three strings, not unlike that used at Malta; the other a rude attempt at a bagpipe, being nothing more than an inflated dog-skin and a chanter, played after the manner of the Highland pipes. The sound produced by these was most intolerable, but the piper endeavoured to make up for the outrage committed on one sense by an appeal to another, and so kept up a sort of wild Romaic dance all the time, which the people seemed to enjoy very much. After the delays usual on such occasions, the signal was given, the post removed, and the vessel slided rapidly down the inclined plane, amidst the shouting of the people, and the pealing from the batteries. We returned to our breakfast, and bade adieu to Rhodes about twelve o'clock that day.

Owing to baffling winds, we did not reach the opposite coast till sunset, when we beat through the narrow entrance of the harbour of Marmorice. The coast around this opening is truly grand; the mountains, many of which are of a conical figure, rise in bold curves from the water's edge, and all are more or less wooded with pines, heaths, and arbutuses. So narrow is this strait, and so high the rocks that shut out this basin from the open sea, that we were totally unprepared to meet the noble sheet of calm water that met our eye on entering this noble land-locked gulf. The mountains that surround Marmorice are higher, more wooded, and have a greater appearance of vegetation along their sides, than those that skirt the coast. At the northern extremity of the bay is the town, a small place, consisting of a jumble of flat-roofed houses, huddled together without order or regularity, and without streets, unless the dirty lanes that lead from house to house can be so denominated. These dwellings rise in terraces to the towers of an old castle, probably of the time of the Crusaders or Venetians, which crowns the peninsular rock on which the village stands. Mean and inconsiderable as it was, yet in that wild and lonely region, amidst the alpine scenery that surrounded it, and the lake-like sea that washed its base, it reminded us of the small towns of Switzerland and the Tyrol, and

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had rather a pleasing and picturesque effect. We anchored about half a mile to the west of the town; not wishing to hold communication with the natives, or approach closer to the place, in which we had been informed at Rhodes that plague had recently broken out. Our appearance seemed to cause no small bustle and excitement among the inhabitants.

At night, when a light sparkled in every window of the town, it had a pretty effect; but as soon as it became dusk, the most deafening serenade was set up by hundreds of frogs, in the marshes and shrubby plains in our immediate vicinity; and they kept it up with much spirit during the greater part of the night, interrupted occasionally by the mournful howl or sharp bark of the jackal prowling along the shore. Upon visiting this place next morning, I found that our annoying friends were the tree frogs (rana arborea), numbers of whom swarmed in every bush. They are small, and of such a beautiful light green colour, as to be with difficulty distinguished from the leaves that surround them. The toes of this species are longer, and less webbed than the common kind, and have a small viscous spongiole at each extremity to enable them to climb with the greater facility. The membrane beneath the throat is flaccid and expansible, and swells out to a great extent when the animal utters its peculiar note.

In the morning we rowed to the shore, and landed to the westward of the town, in a lovely valley of great extent, divided into neat enclosures, containing corn fields, some orange groves and vineyards, and intersected by streams of crystal water, the banks carpeted with verdant turf, or shadowed by willows, rhododendrons, and oleanders. The almond tree was clad in the delicate pink mantle of its early blossom; jays and rollers chatter in the bushes; and as the warm sun called forth the young energies of created nature, we felt for the first time that it was spring. Small black cattle, fat-tailed sheep, and flocks of Syrian goats we met upon the hills, on which the Scotch fir and stone pine grow and attain a considerable size, and are principally used as ship timber; these, with the brushwood which is employed for fuel, form the trade this small place has with Rhodes and Kastelorizo. Most of the inhabitants have summer-houses in the lovely dells and valleys that occur among the hills, and though but rudely constructed huts, they were most beautifully situated, and shaded by carobs, acacias, and bay trees, some of which were the largest I ever

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