DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5542#0086
76
BRACKISH SPRINGS.
[Chap. xxxv.
Greeks from Syme, buying wood for that place and Alex-
andria, and some Turkish woodcutters. On landing- we
found the ground covered with ruins, partly Byzantine and
partly Hellenic, with thick Cyclopian walls supporting ter-
races, extending all over the face of the hills. While
our tent was being pitched, we strolled to see some ruins
which we had observed as we entered the bay : they proved
to be those of a Greek church called the monastery of
St. George. Many ancient blocks had been used in its con-
struction, on one of which we found an inscription* written
in the Doric dialect, and alluding to two inhabitants of
Cephalonia and Cos who had been rewarded with golden
crowns, and honoured, together with their respective wives,
by some town or community the name of which we could
not make out. We here learnt that the ruined castle
and town which we had lately visited was now called
Ainoulias.
Thursday, February 9.—Oar bivouac last night was
cold, damp, and unprotected. Packs of jackals were howl-
ing and hunting in full chorus round our tent, and their
shrill bark and shrieking note kept gradually approaching us
until the whole pack swept past us in the dark. About a mile
to the S.E. of the spot where we had pitched our tent was a
broad and well-cultivated valley watered by a small stream,
and surrounded by lofty and well-wooded mountains : under
the guidance of one of the old woodcutters we started to see
some ruins or ancient walls, eski bina, said to exist upon
the hills to the south. As we rounded the rocky point near
our bivouac, we passed some very copious springs of water
flowing out from under the rocks, the temperature of which
was so much warmer than the morning air, which was keen
and frosty, and had covered the grass around our tent with
a slight hoar frost, that a thick vapour was rising from it,
as well as from that portion of the bay into which it flowed,
and upon which it seemed to float. This, however, soon dis-
* Sec Appendix, No. 301.
BRACKISH SPRINGS.
[Chap. xxxv.
Greeks from Syme, buying wood for that place and Alex-
andria, and some Turkish woodcutters. On landing- we
found the ground covered with ruins, partly Byzantine and
partly Hellenic, with thick Cyclopian walls supporting ter-
races, extending all over the face of the hills. While
our tent was being pitched, we strolled to see some ruins
which we had observed as we entered the bay : they proved
to be those of a Greek church called the monastery of
St. George. Many ancient blocks had been used in its con-
struction, on one of which we found an inscription* written
in the Doric dialect, and alluding to two inhabitants of
Cephalonia and Cos who had been rewarded with golden
crowns, and honoured, together with their respective wives,
by some town or community the name of which we could
not make out. We here learnt that the ruined castle
and town which we had lately visited was now called
Ainoulias.
Thursday, February 9.—Oar bivouac last night was
cold, damp, and unprotected. Packs of jackals were howl-
ing and hunting in full chorus round our tent, and their
shrill bark and shrieking note kept gradually approaching us
until the whole pack swept past us in the dark. About a mile
to the S.E. of the spot where we had pitched our tent was a
broad and well-cultivated valley watered by a small stream,
and surrounded by lofty and well-wooded mountains : under
the guidance of one of the old woodcutters we started to see
some ruins or ancient walls, eski bina, said to exist upon
the hills to the south. As we rounded the rocky point near
our bivouac, we passed some very copious springs of water
flowing out from under the rocks, the temperature of which
was so much warmer than the morning air, which was keen
and frosty, and had covered the grass around our tent with
a slight hoar frost, that a thick vapour was rising from it,
as well as from that portion of the bay into which it flowed,
and upon which it seemed to float. This, however, soon dis-
* Sec Appendix, No. 301.