114 



ASIA MINOR. 



Extract from Dr. Sibthorp's Journal respecting the Plain of Troy. 



" Sept. 1774. We left Cdum Kale and passed by a paved road, on 

 the sides of which were vineyards and gardens. We entered on the 

 fertile plains of Troy, having crossed the Simois, the bed of which 

 was dry ; at Bounarbashi the steward of the Aga who had gone 

 himself on a pilgrimage to Mecca received us, and prepared a rustic 

 supper. The court-yard of the Aga was that of a large farmer ; 

 numerous buildings, as cow-houses, sheep-stalls, and sheds for 

 different purposes, lined the sides of it, and instruments of husbandry 

 were disposed in various parts. The wains were of a singular 

 structure, and probably of very ancient origin, and had received 

 none of the improvements of 'modern discoveries. A large wicker 

 basket eight feet long, mounted on a four-wheeled machine, was 

 supported by four lateral props, which were inserted into holes or 

 sockets. The wheels were made of one solid piece, round, and 

 convex on each side. The house was placed on an elevated site, 

 commanding a view of the plain of Troy ; a little to the left was the 

 source of the Scamander marked by a poplar grove ; the Simois 

 waved to the right in a serpentine course, its bed nearly dry, edged 

 with Tamarisk, Planes, and Agnus Castus. 



" The plain of Troy, which reached almost to the village, was an 

 extended flat of a rich fertile loamy soil, that now changed into a 

 bed of basalt, on which the village of Bounarbashi was built. Three 

 sorts of wheat are sown in the plain, distinguished by the titles of 

 Cara Culchuck, Devidishi, and Sari Boulda. The country was also 

 cultivated with cotton and sesamum. The peasants were busy in 

 carrying home in their wicker wains their crops of Indian corn ; the 

 yellow was the most common sort. 



" Having reached the point of the mountains which we judged to 

 be the site of the ancient Acropolis, we had the broad shallow bed of 

 the Simois immediately under us ; it was now quite dry. On the de- 

 clivity of the rock, which was composed of a white coarse-grained 



