DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1038#0103
f
88
as often as the thick forest of Arbutus and prickly-leaved
oak permitted, we caught delightful views of the opposite
shore. Ithaca seems to have been celebrated for trees in
the time of Homer, and the woods on this mountain are par-
ticularly mentioned.1 In some parts the trees, meeting
above our heads, completely darkened the path, which in
others conducted us through little open spaces, covered with
flowers or verdure, and spotted with small bushes of mastic,
wild olive, and juniper. Nothing could have been more
delightful, if the steepness of the mountain had not ren-
dered the ascent so laborious. This woody region conti-
nued till we had advanced about 1500 paces, when the path
conducted us into a ravine worn in the side of the moun-
tain, by winter floods, and covered with loose stones. Here
we began to perceive the barking of the dogs, and the bells
of sheep, belonging to the monastery; and we arrived at
the little flat on which the edifice is erected, after a walk of
no great extent, but rendered excessively laborious, by the
heat of the climate and the roughness of the path.
The monastery is 1900 paces distant from the sea at
* Od. 23. 'zvohvSivSgzov «y^o».
i
88
as often as the thick forest of Arbutus and prickly-leaved
oak permitted, we caught delightful views of the opposite
shore. Ithaca seems to have been celebrated for trees in
the time of Homer, and the woods on this mountain are par-
ticularly mentioned.1 In some parts the trees, meeting
above our heads, completely darkened the path, which in
others conducted us through little open spaces, covered with
flowers or verdure, and spotted with small bushes of mastic,
wild olive, and juniper. Nothing could have been more
delightful, if the steepness of the mountain had not ren-
dered the ascent so laborious. This woody region conti-
nued till we had advanced about 1500 paces, when the path
conducted us into a ravine worn in the side of the moun-
tain, by winter floods, and covered with loose stones. Here
we began to perceive the barking of the dogs, and the bells
of sheep, belonging to the monastery; and we arrived at
the little flat on which the edifice is erected, after a walk of
no great extent, but rendered excessively laborious, by the
heat of the climate and the roughness of the path.
The monastery is 1900 paces distant from the sea at
* Od. 23. 'zvohvSivSgzov «y^o».
i