262 FROM THE HELLESPONT 
€HAP. side of the mountain. Within this cave is an 
^. .y,../ arched passage ; at the bottom of which the 
water flows through a narrow channel, as clear 
as crystal. It conducts to a lofty vaulted 
chamber, cut in the rock, and shaped like a 
bee-hive, with an aperture at the top, admitting 
air and light from the surface of the mountain. 
We proceeded, with lighted tapers, to this 
curious cavern, and tasted the water at its source. 
It is a hot spring, with a chalybeate flavour, 
gushing violently from the rock into a small 
bason. In its long course through the aqueduct, 
although it flow with great rapidity, it becomes 
cool and refreshing before it reaches the town, 
and perhaps owes something of its great 
celebrity to its medicinal properties. The work 
constructed over it may be as old as the age of 
Hippocrates ; setting aside all the notions enter- 
tained concerning the supposed epocha of domes 
and arches. That in an island, famous for 
having produced the father of Medicine, the 
principal object of curiosity, still bearing a 
traditionary reference to his name, should be 
a warm chalybeate spring, is a remarkable 
circumstance. 
Descending from this fountain, we saw, for 
the first time, the Date-tree, growing in its 
natural state. A few of these trees may be 
