lo'O BAY OF JURA/ 
believing us to be pirates, were afraid to 
approach ; so that although we saw a few 
traces, as of human beings, upon the island, not 
one of them appeared. We collected a few 
plants and minerals. The mountain around the 
bay, and especially that part of it which extends 
in the same line of direction as Syra, consists of 
schistus, containing masses of quartz, exhibiting 
a beautiful contrast of colour. We found some 
quartz crystallized, and also crystals of carlo- ^ 
Wretched na ted lime. Tournefort describes Jura as the 
condition 
of jura. most barren and disagreeable spot in the Archi- 
pelago, and says its plants are all of them 
common. It is not more than four leagues in 
circumference. In the time of Strabo, and 
indeed in all ages, its poverty and wretched- 
ness were proverbial; and, while a less con- 
temned spot hardly obtains from that author 
any other notice than the introduction of its 
name, GYARUS, from the supremacy of its 
indigence, occupies a more considerable portion 
of his regard'. A mean and miserable village, 
inhabited solely by fishermen, was the only set- 
tlement at that time upon its barren rocks : he 
mentions their embassy to Augustus, who was 
at Corinth, after the battle of Aclium, praying a 
(1) Vicl. Strab. Geog. lib.x. p. 708. O.con. 1807. 
