X 
Mitra \ 
Be$hek. 
16 FROM THESSALONICA, 
CHAP, of the BoLB^AN Lake, we came to the Lesser 
Beshek, called Micra Beshek ; and having passed 
this little town, which, by the way, is larger than 
the town called Greater Beshek, the view became 
very beautiful; and the appearance exhibited 
by the town, upon a promontory stretching into 
the lake, had something of the fine character of 
the scenes in Switzerland^ Soon afterwards 
we reached the western extremity of this little 
inland sea ; and, entering a defile, followed for 
about an hour a river flowing out of it. In this 
defile, above the precipices on the right hand, 
are the ruins of a monastery. The rocks rise 
to a great height on each side. They are en- 
tirely of clay slate, covered with enormous plane- 
trees and Vallonia oaks. After having quitted 
this narrow pass, we arrived, in five hours from 
the time of our leaving Clissele, at a dervene; with 
a view of the sea in front. This defile seems to 
offer a natural boundary between Macedonia and 
Thrace; and the appearance of the dervene in- 
duced us to suppose that it was now considered 
as a frontier pass ; but upon inquiry, they told 
us that the Strymon, four hours farther towards 
the east, is considered as the boundary : which, 
in fact, was the antient limit between the two 
(1) See the Plate at p. 387 of Vol. IV. of the Quarto Edition a| 
these Travels. 
