&ROM THE HELLESPONT TO RHODES. 121 
Egffiont and Ileyman.* It once covered with its branches 
upward of forty shops; and enough is still remaining to asto¬ 
nish ail beholders. An enormous branch, extending from the 
trunk almost to the sea, supported by ancient columns 6f 
granite, gave way and fell. This has considerably diminished 
the effect produced by its beauty and prodigious size. Its 
branches still exhibit a very remarkable appearance, extend¬ 
ing, horizontally, to a surprising distance; supported at the 
same time, by granite and marble pillars found upon the island. 
Some notion may be formed of the time those props have been 
so employed, by the appearance of the bark; this has encased 
the extremities of the columns so completely, that the branches 
and the pillars naturally support each other; and it is probable, 
if those brandies were raised, some of them would lift the pil¬ 
lars from the earth. 
Beneath this tree,.I observed a cylindrical marble altar, 
adorned with rains’ heads supporting festoons in relief, exactly 
like the altar from Delos, engraved in Tournefort’s Travels, and 
lately presented by Mr. Harvey, of Jesus College, Cambridge, 
to the vestibule of the University Library. Such altars are 
common in the Levant: they are usually scooped, as this of Cos 
has been, and used for mortars, to bruise corn.f Where they 
cannot find altars for that purpose, they employ the capitals, of 
columns. Thus have been preserved a few Grecian antiquities, 
which otherwise would long ago have been converted into lime. 
The inscription upon this altar was very legible. Its antiquity 
may be noticed, although its peculiar age cannot he ascertained, 
by the manner in which the 11 is written. It was evidently a 
votive donation, given by the person whose name appears 
inscribed. 
A HO AAS NS GY 
TOYAPGAAHNIOY 
M AfNHTOI 
Afcar the same place, another altar, and a few marbles with 
imperfect inscriptions, might be noticed, but none of them merit 
* Egmont and Heyman’s 1'ravels, fee. vol. i. p, 263. 
f Their dimensions are generally the same. This of CoS tve measured. 
Feet Inches 
Height-3 . 6 
Diameter - - 2 . 8 
M 
