MOUNT HELICON. 121 
be given from notes written upon the spot, with- chap. 
out the slightest alteration. A more delightful 
retreat can hardly be found in the romantic 
passes of Sivisserland. It is surrounded on all 
sides by the mountain ; one small opening alone 
presenting a picturesque view of a ruined tower 
belonging to Panaja, upon an eminence, in front. 
The air was filled with spicy odours, from num- 
berless aromatic plants covering the soil. A 
perennial fountain, gushing from the side of a 
rock, poured down its clear and babbling waters 
into the rivulet below. A thick grove almost 
concealed the monastery ; and every tree that 
contributed to its beauty or luxuriance appeared 
to be the wild and spontaneous produce of the 
mountain*. Nothing interrupted the still silence 
of this solitude, but the humming of bees, and 
the sound of falling waters. As we drew near 
to the fountain, we found it covered with moss, 
and with creeping plants, which spread every- 
were their pendent foliage, hanging gracefully 
from the trees by which it was shaded. Such 
(2) The number and variety of the trees growing near ihe Monastery 
of St. Nicholo were so remarkable, that we made a list of them : and 
as the natural productions of Helicon are probably the same now that 
they were formerly, this list may give the Reader some idea of the 
Grove of the Muses J ^s it existed during the celebration of tbeMOTSEiA. 
.1. Walnut 
