TO RHODES. 247 
where the sea appears entirely land-locked ; as chap. 
indeed it does for a very considerable distance ■ ^ ■ 
Jiisher-matli, Five-Jingers. The most commanding view of this was from 
the Acropolis of Priene, from which I descended, on the south-east side, 
by a way almost impassable, resting at times to contemplate the ruins 
of the Temple of Minerva at Priene, and to cast my eyes over the Plain 
of the Meander, towards the Lake of Myus, on the north-east side of 
which rises Mount Titanus in all its majesty. In the " Ionian Anti- 
quities," a minute detail of the architecture of the Temple of Minerva 
has been published ; and in Chandler's " Inscriptions," a faithful copy 
from the inscribed marbles that lie among the ruins. From the sum- 
mit of the Acr<>polis of Priene I saw, to the south, the vast accretion of 
land, marshy, and muddy, occasioned by the Meander. Priene, once 
on the coast, was, in the time of Strabo, five miles from the sea. 
I crossed the river, winding through tamarisks, in a triangular boat : its 
breadth here was about thirty yards : at a later season of the year 
I passed it again, higher up, in Caria, over a wooden bridge, sixty paces 
long. From the summit of the Theatre of Miletus, facing the north- 
wc;5t, is a good view of the mazes of the river. The distance of the 
sea from the theatre I conjecture to be seven miles. The high moun- 
tains which are to be passed in going from Miletus, and the site of 
the Temple of Apollo, near the promontory Posidium, towards Jassus, 
are also covered with arbutus, the dwarf oak, and the pine : those 
mountains are the haunts of numerous beasts, particularly^ of the 
jackal (called by the Turks, chical), which disturbed us in the night, 
by its cries. The road is often cut through masses of slate ; some- 
times it is paved : by the side of it are small huts, of wood, covered 
with beughs, for the purpose of selling coffee to travellers, chiefly in 
summer-time ; they are generally by the side of a running stream. The 
soil was loose, and easily yielded to the plough. The quantity of 
ground which might be brought into cultivation, for corn, or pasture 
for cattle, is very great ; but it is neglected, from want of persons to 
till it. The rain had now increased the torrents descending from the 
mountains, so much, that it was quite dangerous to pass them. The 
south-west brought with it rain; the north-east, a sharp cold air: 
these two winds arc called by the Turks, Lodos, and Foreds ; names 
borrowed from the Greek. 
" The road leads on to Casikli for three hours, by the sea : you 
then turn to the east, for the same time ; and reach Assum Uassus), 
the 
