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PARNASSUS, 



AND 



THE NEIGHBOURING DISTRICT. 



[FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF THE LATE DR. SIBTHORP.] 



Nov. 16. 1794. — We left Athens, and came by the usual road to the 

 monastery of Daphne ; having passed it, an agreeable view opened 

 through the defile into the Saronic gulf. We coasted along its shore, 

 having on our right a salt-marsh, with pools and water-mills ; the 

 marsh was covered with Salicornia herbacea, and different species of 

 Tringae flew along the pools ; I shot the Tringa Erythropus. We 

 advanced towards Eleusis ; when leaving the town about a mile on 

 our left, we crossed over a rich and fertile plain towards the Cephis- 

 sus ; we passed the bed of it, which was narrow and filled with stones, 

 brought down by the winter torrents from the mountains. We 

 entered into the forest of Sarando Potamo, and having traversed it 

 for four hours arrived at Condoura. We passed through the defiles 

 of the forest covered with Pinaster, wild olives, the Kermes oak, Phil- 

 lyrea, and some carob trees. The village of Condoura is not 

 unpleasantly situated on a rising hill, extending into a verdant valley, 

 watered by a narrow stream flowing from the mountain. The houses, 

 covered with pantiles, consist of a single room, with a door-way in 

 the middle ; the area is divided into two parts, the one serves for the 

 stable, the other, which rises a foot higher, is tenanted by the peasant 

 and his family ; in the centre is the fire-place, the smoke passing 

 through apertures made in the roof. This place is eight hours distant 

 from Athens, and six from Thebes. 



Nov. 18. — We left Condoura in the morning, and ascending the 

 mountain traversed some deep ravines, and crossed Cithseron, now 



