302 
rRECIPICES AKD FHOMONTORIES. 

of conveying the necessary materiab for the contp^®j|/ 
so astonishing a work, the Genoese constructed il''^ 
perhaps without a parallel in Europe, the result o 
wealth, address, and enterprise. Being at a remote ^ | 
from tire coast, it is natural to cof^ecture that it ''“jii''' 
ployed to curb the hostile spirit of the natives to''^' (il' 
maritime colonial possessions. The latest pos.sessot*^^j. iP 
fortress were Jews, in the cemetery of whose co'^ 
traveller meets with rained tombs of marble 
lying beneath the trees he has to pass in his ascent. 
The whole of the passage up the mountai 
. is S' 
itetP 
difficult ; nor is it rendered more practicable by 
dilaPj^fl 
ing labours of its original possessors, whose 
works occur almost at every step. On reaching ^ 
mit, caverns and gloomy galleries, perforated in 
tbv , 
present on every side their dark mouths. (h> V" 
elevated part of this extraordinary eminence, is * 
in 
plain, covered with fine tur^: it is partly fenced 
mouldering wall of the fortress, but otherwise 
surrounding precipices. From this spot the 
mountains, valleys, hills, w'oods, and villagei>< 
discerned. “ While,” observes the travellei, .joH | 
these details are supplied, “ with dismay and 
crept on our hands and knees to look over 
the 
these fearful heights, a half-clad Tartar, wild | 
of the north, mounted, witliout a saddle, and wh. 
'' ,-n 
otlier bridle except the twisted stem of “ 
colt equally unsubdued, galloped to the very p“g ^|| ^ 
precipice, where, as his horse stood prancin§^| • ' 
borders of eternity, he amused himself with pn'^^ jj)i’ 
^ , whic^^'^fli3^, 
commanded. We entered one of the excavate^^|,,;t^ 
bers, — a small square apartment, which led to ... ^ 
to us the different places in the vast district j co' 
our right-hand ; and, on our left, a narrow |(f, 
ducted us to an open balcony, witli a parapc^ - j|iv 
formed of the rock, on tire very face of one of 
precipices, whence the depth below might be y| 
with less danger. The vultures which hovered t;. 
* ' ’ ” and 
valleys did not appear larger than sw'allows ; 
of the hills, covered by tutted woods, with ' 
fcattered amid the rocks and defiles, appeared 
dating a depth, that the blood chilled at ih^ 
I 
E 
