■msS trict of 'thoa3. 
81 
As I descended, 1 found my companions busied among the 
mins before described. They had excavated a very beautiful 
column, part of which they discovered buried in the soil, and 
had found a bronze medal of the city of Corinth. Our artist 
had also completed some very interesting views We passed 
j the night at the foot of Gargarus, three hours distant from this 
place, in one of (lie most wretched villages of Turkey, called 
Evgillar. Our coming at first excited suspicion among the 
inhabitants, who regarded us as French spies, and even pro¬ 
ceeded to menaces, in some degreee alarming ; but our firman 
being produced, and the object of our journey explained, we 
experienced from these simple and 'honest■ mountaineers every 
good office it was in their power to-bestow. 
On the following morning by day break, the sky being cloud¬ 
less, we began to ascend toward the summit of the mountain.— 
During the greatest part of the year, Gargarus, like JKtna, is 
characterized by a triple zone; first, a district of cultivated 
land ; afterward, an assemblage of forests; and lastly, toward 
the summit, a region of snow and ice. Passing through the first 
on horseback, we ascended by the banks of the river. The 
scenery was uncommonly fine ; it resembled the country in the 
neighbourhood of Yietri, upon the Gulph of Salerno, w here 
Sal vat o Rosa studied and painted the savage and uncouth fea- 
lures of nature, in his great and noble style. During the 
first hour, we passed the remains of some small Greek chapels, 
the oratories of ascetics, whom the dark spirit of superstition, 
in the fourth century of the Christian sera, conducted, from the 
duties of civil society, to the wildest and most untrodden soli¬ 
tudes. Secluded from scenes of war and revolutionary fury, 
these buildings remain nearly as they were left when the coun¬ 
try became a part of the Turkish empire; nor would it have 
been marvellous if a mouldering skeleton, at the foot of a for¬ 
saken altar, had exhibited the remains of the latest of its vo¬ 
taries. One of them, indeed, placed above the roaring torrent, 
in a situation of uncommon sublimity, was so entire, that a 
painting of the Virgin, upon the stuccoed wall of the eastern 
extremity, still preserved its colours. 
We now began to traverse the belt of forests, and were en¬ 
abled to get half way through this part of the ascent upon our 
horses : the undertaking afterward became more tedious and 
difficult, and we were compelled to proceed on foot. Half con¬ 
gealed snow lying among the rocks, and loose stones, rendered 
Ihe way dubious and slippery. In this region of Gargarus . ther® 
