166 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



evening : the air soft, pure, and mellow with the 

 radiance of the sinking sun; the sea a pale blue, 

 with a shore of golden sand ; green hills in the fore- 

 ground, and the snowy range behind looking no 

 higher than Ben Lomond, though it is 7000 feet. 

 The whole scene was very peaceful and homelike. 



II. 



OLYMPIA. 



Carriages had been sent to meet us from Pyrgos, 

 about six miles inland, the first stage on our journey 

 to Olympia. 



Our road lay at first through a marshy plain, 

 covered with asphodel, bracken, and rough grass. 

 Later on the ground became more cultivated, and we 

 passed fields planted with the currant-vine and with 

 fig-trees, gardens full of orange and lemon trees, and 

 rows of dark cypresses. By the time we reached 

 Pyrgos it was dark. The town, which is of modern 

 growth, consists mainly of one long straggling street, 

 along which we rattled to our inn through crowds of 

 people in all possible costumes, making as much noise 

 as they knew how an aim in which they were 

 assisted mightily by the dogs, which abound in all 

 parts of Greece. There were a great many soldiers 

 about. A bugle blown about nine o'clock dispersed 

 these, when the town became comparatively quiet. 



