148 CONVENT OF AGIOS STEPHANOS. 



a considerable quantity, gives them the appearance 

 of pollards, and makes them look very miserable. 

 The convent we were about to visit was the 

 Agios Stephanos, which is one of the highest. 

 Leaving our horses at the foot of the hill, we 

 reached, after about a quarter of an hour's hard 

 climbing, a spot where, on looking up, we saw, 

 about one hundred and eighty feet perpendicularly 

 over our heads, a projecting wooden building, to 

 wdiich a basket, which was on the ground close to 

 us, was attached by a cord, and which basket 

 appeared to be used as a means of conveyance for 

 provisions, (fee, from the spot where we stood to 

 the monks residing in the regions above. We 

 had thus arrived at the back of the rock, on the 

 summit of which the Agios Stephanos stands, its 

 height above us being one hundred and eighty 

 . feet, whilst its height above the plain on its front 

 and two side faces must be three or four hundred 

 feet. On hailing the monks to admit us, they 

 told us to mount by a series of strong, but very 

 disagreeable and ricketty ladders, in joints, 

 which ran up one sloping side of the rock, and 

 entered a covered kind of gallery about one 

 hundred feet above the ground where we stood, 



