-114 
CXARRe’s travels.. 
cent slope, covered with gardens from the water’s edge. Trees 
bending w ith fruit ; the citron, the orange, the lemon, the mui 
berry, and the lentiscus , or mastic tree, are seen forming ex¬ 
tensive groves; and in the midst of these appears the town of 
Scio. 
Upon first entering the straits, small objects interfere not with 
the stupendous grandeur of the view. Mountains, high, undu¬ 
lating; sweeping precipitous, inclose the sea on all sides, so as to 
give it the appearance of a vast lake surrounded by that sort 
of Alpine territory, where the eye, from the immensity of ob¬ 
jects, roams with facility over the sides and summits it beholds^ 
surveying valleys, precipices, chasms, crags, and bays; and, 
losing all attention to minuter features, is occupied only in view¬ 
ing the bolder outlines of nature. As we advanced, however, 
and drew near to Chios, the gorgeous picture presented by that 
beautiful island drew all our attention, and engrossed it, from 
daylight until noon. It is the paradise of modern Greece; 
more productive than any other island, and yielding to none in 
grandeur. We passed close beneath the town, sailing pleasant- 
1 Kings iv. 28. Homer may be consulted, II. E. 195.; and Juvenal, Sat. viii, (lumen* 
Us ordea lassis). Niehbuhr says, he saw no oats in Arabia. I did not observe tobac¬ 
co so much cultivated as corn and cotton. The tobacco plantations require much at¬ 
tention ; but are very productive. After gathering the leaves, the stalks stand and 
rot, and, by the salt which they contain, fructify the earth. The crop from a tobacco 
plantation esteemed worth twice as much as the product of the same land sown with 
corn An fa re of moderately good grouud is said to yield about two hundred okesof 
cotton : an oke is two pounds and three quarters ; and the cotton may be woith near¬ 
ly two piastres an oke. 
“ The olive tree flourishes in a chalky soil. In summer, a hollow is dug round the 
tree, to receive water; the fruit is beaten oft’ with long sticks, and not gathered. The 
olivepresses, which I saw, consistofa circular basin, of twelve feet in diameter? 
and from the centre rises a tall strong piece of wood, to which a large stone, like a 
millstone, is attached A horse goes round the basin, and, as he moves, the perpen¬ 
dicular piece of wood receives a rotatory motion; this is communicated to the 
3t:one. 
Locusts are called by the Greeks xaTcipa (a curse). They had laid waste the 
country about Adramyttium and Pergamus. Proceeding in a straight line, and stopped 
iby no impediment, they devoured every kind of vegetation: all means used to destroy 
them were fruitless; if some part.were killed by smoke and fire, kindled expressly, 
still, howevar, multitudes escape. In July, the Archipelago was covered for some 
distance with swarpis, which the wind had driven into the sea. They were larger than 
grasshoppers; with legs and body of a yellow colour; their wings were brown, and 
spotted. The Turks have not learned to eat them ; but with the Arabs, the locust is 
foiled or roasted, and eaten with salt. Europeans are surprised at this; as the Arabs 
are, when they hear that we eat crabs, oysters, and lobsters. 
The storks, while I was in the Troad, were building their nests on the houses at 
Bournabashi. The veneration paid to these birds by the Mahometans is well known. 
The Thessalians (says Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride) esteem them, because they de¬ 
stroyed serpents. The noise made by the upper and under parts of their bill ( k cre- 
pitante ciconiarostro,’ Ovid ) is well compared, by Shaw, to that of a pair of castanets. 
“ On the great roads near Smyrna, which lead to the interior, are to be met fre¬ 
quent caravans of camels s these are preceded by an ass; and round their necks are 
strings of heads, with a bell. 1 mention this, because the same ornament is seen on 
the camels sculptured at Persepolis. The camel of the northern part of Asiatic Tur¬ 
key is a stronger animai than that of the south; the latter carries not more than five 
hundred pounds weight; but the former from eight to nine hundred. Rear Moolah I 
foet a earav&B lade* a with iron ore. Waipok's MS. Jcurnak 
