164 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



we pulled ashore, where, through the kindness of an 

 American merchant, a sailing-boat was waiting to 

 take us across to Katakolo as also a fat, good- 

 natured youth named Nicholas, to act as our drago- 

 man in the interior. We were fortunate enough to 

 fall in here with Dr Hirschfeld, the director of the 

 German excavations at Olympia, who, with his party, 

 joined us in our voyage to the mainland. 



"We set off at about half-past eleven. The sun 

 was now quite high, and the day was glorious. At 

 first, for lack of wind, we had to row along the shore, 

 getting a very pretty view of Zante as we left it 

 behind. The opposite coast, now quite distinct, had 

 the sun full upon it. A haze hung about the lower 

 part, but the bare snow-peaks of Erymanthus glittered 

 against the sky, looking almost too brilliant to be real 



This curious and beautiful effect we had also ob- 

 served when looking from Corfu at the Albanian 

 coast. It is due, I believe, to radiation, favoured by 

 an extremely clear atmosphere. One can hardly 

 imagine that these are real mountains at all They 

 look as if freshly painted on the sky for a canvas, or 

 as if hung from above, veritable " castles in the air." 



As we reached the S.E. point of Zante a fresh 

 breeze sprang up, before which we ran merrily along, 

 and made good way towards the opposite shore. 

 Nothing could be more delightful than was this glid- 

 ing over a summer sea : the brilliant sunshine 

 tempered by the wind which at once fanned our 



