ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 25 



out little upright blocks of conglomerate ; so that, 

 looking up the side of this great mountain, if I 

 had attempted to draw all the gradations of the 

 layers of blocks and snails, it would have taken 

 me two or three days to have made the outline. 

 From this great slope of horizontal parallel lines 

 rose perpendicularly the limestone peak of Boz- 

 boroom, and between every snail there seemed to 

 be level plots of alluvial soil the whole way up. 

 At least, such was the character of the country 

 in my immediate neighbourhood. As far as I 

 could see up the mountain, and certainly all 

 round Serhghe itself, all these flat surfaces of 

 alluvium were of the most fertile character ; 

 though I found, a day or two after, that I was at 

 an elevation where old Siddle's thermometer boiled 

 at 204f degrees. Some of the wildest-looking 

 mountaineers I ever saw were collected under a 

 walnut-tree, in a field adjoining the one which 

 I presume was the Agora, and had hailed the 

 muleteers to go down. When I went, I found 

 them bivouacked under a neighbouring walnut- 

 tree; and, as I went, I need not tell you that the 

 extraordinary fertility into which I had come in 

 this very elevated region immensely raised my 

 hopes, for the harvest was all in ; and being 



