IS 8 
flavour, gashing .violently from the rock into a sroal! 
In its long course throng!) the aquedtict, although it flows with 
great rapidity, it becomes cool and refreshing before it reaches 
the town, and perhaps owes something of its great celebrity to 
its medicinal properties. The work constructed over it may be 
as ok! as the age of Hippocrates ; setting aside all the notions 
propagated concerning the supposed epocha of domes and 
arches. At any rate, it is an interesting fact, that in an island fa¬ 
mous for having produced the Father of Medicine, the princi¬ 
pal object of curiosity still bearing traditionary reference to his 
name should be a warm chalybeate spring. 
Descending from this fountain, I saw, for the first time, the 
date tree, growing in its natural state. A few of these trees 
may be noticed in gardens about the town. Lemons were very 
abundant; but oranges not so common. We purchased the 
former at the rate of about three shillings for a thousand, not¬ 
withstanding the very great demand then made for them to 
supply the British fleet. The island of Cos is very large, and 
for the most part consists of one barren mountain of limestone 5 
of this substance almost all the Grecian islands are composed. 
There are few parts of the world where masses of limestone are 
seen of equal magnitude and elevation. Some of the principal 
mountains exhibit no other mineral, from their bases to their 
summits. The Greek sailors of our vessel, who accompanied 
us upon this expedition, caught several land tortoises: these, 
being opened, were full of eggs. The sailors described them 
as the mostdelicious food in the country. We found after¬ 
ward that boat loads of these animals were taken to supply 
the markets of Constantinople. We saw them cooked after we 
returned on board, but could not so far abandon our prejudices 
as to taste them. 
A poor little shopkeeper in Cos was described, by the French? 
consul, as possessor of several curious old books. We there¬ 
fore went to visit him, and were surprised to find him, in the 
midst of his wares, with a red nightcap on his head, reading 
the Odyssey of Homer in manuscript. This was fairly writ¬ 
ten upon paper, with interlineary criticisms, and a commentary 
in the margin. He had other manuscript volumes, containing 
works upon rhetoric, poetry, history, and theology. Nothing 
could induce him to part with any of these books. The 
account he gave w as, that some of them were copies of origi- 
oals in the library at Patmos, (among these I observed the Apo¬ 
calypse, with a commentary;) and that his father had brought 
