CONVENTS OF METEORA. 147 



some of the convents stand, to place the machinery 

 for raismg up the foundation stones. 



These huge rocks cover a space of about one 

 mile and a half in length, and of a variable 

 width. They are a kind of soft conglomerate with 

 sea pebbles and shells in great quantities, but 

 they shew evident marks of the effects of time 

 and weather on a not very solid kind of stone. 

 Besides the convents, there are houses in all 

 directions, in and under these rocks, to all of 

 which the access is, as to the convents, by a rope- 

 ladder, which can be drawn up at pleasure, or by 

 some most impracticable steps, cut in the solid 

 rock. The country in the vicinity belongs mostly 

 to these convents or houses, vv'hich have, I con- 

 clude, been constructed in these situations of 

 security in consequence of the miserably un- 

 settled state in which this part of the country has 

 always been. There are large and magnificent 

 avenues of mulberry-trees for a considerable dis- 

 tance all round the neighbourhood, and almost 

 every field is planted with a double row ; but their 

 lopped condition, from the branches having been 

 almost entirely cut off for the purpose of feeding 

 the silk-worms, of which the inhabitants cultivate 

 H 2 



