DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0454
416 EXTRAORDINARY FALL OF SNOW.
uncultivated, and covered with small bushes. The view of Taygeton,
and the plain, is magnificent from this spot; but clouds veiled the
summits of the mountain, and a most violent fall of snow soon after
overtook us on the road, and obliged us to stop at a miserable khan,
which is about three hours and forty minutes from Misithra. The
only objects we saw on our way were a fountain, some tiles scattered
about it, with some imperfect vestiges. Polybius' and Pausanias1
mention a place called Skotitas, between Tegea and Sparta; which
may have been near the khan.
The next morning, March the 4th, we proceeded on our journey,
though the sky Mas overcast and lowering. But our khan was
so extremely cold and forlorn, that we preferred braving the
Aveather to the chance of being blocked up by snow in such a
miserable habitation. This misfortune sometimes happens on such
occasions, and it would inevitably have befallen us had we not pro-
ceeded ; for we had not quitted the khan half an hour before the
thickest snow that I ever saw began to fall, and continued, with
hardly any intermission, for twenty-five hours. The flakes of snow
were the largest I had ever seen, and the whole country around was
become a scene of dreary desolation.
In four hours we passed by a fount, and soon after crossed a
winding torrent bed several times, which, from the multiplicity of
its inflections, is called Saranta Potamoi, the forty rivers. The
snow had now fallen so thick that the ground Mas completely
covered, and we at length lost all traces of the road. Our horses
slipped about in the mud till they Mrere too much fatigued to
proceed, and we were frequently obliged to stop and give them
rest. Our prospect now became far from agreeable, not a habita-
tion could be descried on this deserted road, and we had every
reason to fear that we should be obliged to return to the misera-
ble khan we had left behind us; but it Mas not certain even
1 B. 16. p. 741. » B. 3. c. 10.
uncultivated, and covered with small bushes. The view of Taygeton,
and the plain, is magnificent from this spot; but clouds veiled the
summits of the mountain, and a most violent fall of snow soon after
overtook us on the road, and obliged us to stop at a miserable khan,
which is about three hours and forty minutes from Misithra. The
only objects we saw on our way were a fountain, some tiles scattered
about it, with some imperfect vestiges. Polybius' and Pausanias1
mention a place called Skotitas, between Tegea and Sparta; which
may have been near the khan.
The next morning, March the 4th, we proceeded on our journey,
though the sky Mas overcast and lowering. But our khan was
so extremely cold and forlorn, that we preferred braving the
Aveather to the chance of being blocked up by snow in such a
miserable habitation. This misfortune sometimes happens on such
occasions, and it would inevitably have befallen us had we not pro-
ceeded ; for we had not quitted the khan half an hour before the
thickest snow that I ever saw began to fall, and continued, with
hardly any intermission, for twenty-five hours. The flakes of snow
were the largest I had ever seen, and the whole country around was
become a scene of dreary desolation.
In four hours we passed by a fount, and soon after crossed a
winding torrent bed several times, which, from the multiplicity of
its inflections, is called Saranta Potamoi, the forty rivers. The
snow had now fallen so thick that the ground Mas completely
covered, and we at length lost all traces of the road. Our horses
slipped about in the mud till they Mrere too much fatigued to
proceed, and we were frequently obliged to stop and give them
rest. Our prospect now became far from agreeable, not a habita-
tion could be descried on this deserted road, and we had every
reason to fear that we should be obliged to return to the misera-
ble khan we had left behind us; but it Mas not certain even
1 B. 16. p. 741. » B. 3. c. 10.