Second Excursion upon Gargarus-Greek Chapels-Source of the ON N the eleventh of March, having collected our guides and horses as upon the preceding day, we set out again from Evgillar, and proceeded up the mountain, to visit the Cataract, which constitutes the source of the Mender, on the north CHAP. VI. Second Excursion upon Gar garus. CHAP. VI. Greek Chapel. stucco. north-west side of Gargarus. Ascending by the side of its clear and impetuous torrent, we reached, in an hour and a half, the lower boundary of the woody region of the mountain. Here we saw a more entire Chapel than either of those described in our excursion the preceding day, situated upon an eminence above the river. Its form was quadrangular, and oblong. The four walls were yet standing, and part of the roof: this was vaulted, and lined with painted The altar also remained, in an arched recess of the eastern extremity: upon the north side of it was a small and low niche, containing a marble table. In the arched recess was also ́a very antient painting of the Virgin; and below, upon her left hand, the whole length portrait of a Saint, holding an open volume. The heads of these figures were encircled by a line of Glory. Upon the right-hand side of the Virgin there had been a similar painting of some other Saint, but part of the stucco, whereon it was painted, no longer remained. The word ПАPOENON, written among other indistinct characters, appeared upon the wall. The dimensions of this building were only sixteen feet by eight. Its height was not quite twelve feet, from the floor to the beginning of the vaulted roof. Two small windows commanded a view of the river, and a third was placed near the altar. Its walls, only two feet four inches in thickness, afforded, nevertheless, space for the roots of two very large fir-trees: these were actually growing upon them. All along the banks of this river, as we advanced towards its source, we noticed appearances of similar ruins; and in some places, among rocks, or by the sides of precipices, were CHAP. VI. Scamander. were seen remains of several habitations together; as if the monks, who retreated hither, had possessed considerable settlements in the solitudes of the mountain. Our ascent, as we drew near to the source of the river, became steep and stony. Lofty summits towered above us, in the greatest style of Alpine grandeur; the torrent, in its rugged' bed below, all the while foaming upon our left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest Source of the natural amphitheatres the eye ever beheld; and here the guides desired us to alight. The noise of waters silenced every other sound. Huge craggy rocks rose perpendicularly, to an immense height; whose sides and fissures, to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were covered with pines; growing in every possible direction, among a variety of evergreen shrubs, wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and creeping herbage. Enormous plane-trees waved their vast branches above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulph, we beheld several cascades, all of foam, pouring impetuously from chasms in the naked face of a perpendicular rock. It is said the same magnificent cataract continues during all seasons of the year, wholly unaffected by the casualties of rain or melting snow. That a river so ennobled by antient history should at the same time prove equally eminent in circumstances of natural dignity, is a fact worthy of being related. Its origin is not like the source of ordinary streams, obscure and uncertain; of doubtful locality and indeterminate character; ascertained with difficulty, among various petty subdivisions, in swampy places, or amidst insigni CHAP. VI. insignificant rivulets, falling from different parts of the same mountain, and equally tributary: it bursts at once from the dark womb of its parent, in all the greatness of the divine origin assigned to it by Homer 1. The early Christians, who retired or fled from the haunts of society to the wildernesses of Gargarus, seem to have been fully sensible of the effect produced by grand objects, in selecting, as the place of their abode, the scenery near the source of the Scamander; where the voice of Nature speaks in her most awful tone; where, amidst roaring waters, waying forests, and broken precipices, the mind of man becomes impressed, as by the influence of a present Deity 2. The course of the river, after it thus emerges, with very little variation, is nearly from east to west. Its source is distant from Evgillar about nine miles; or, according to the mode of computation in the country, three hours: half this time is spent in a gradual ascent from the village. The rock whence it issues consists of micaceous schistus, containing veins of soft marble. While the Artist was employed in making drawings, ill calculated to afford adequate ideas of the grandeur of the scenery, I climbed the rocks, with my companions, to examine more closely the nature of the chasms whence the torrent issues. issues. Having reached these, we found, in their front, a beautiful natural bason, six or eight feet deep, serving as a reservoir for the water in the first moments of its emission. It was so clear, that the minutest object might be discerned at the bottom. The copious overflowing of this reservoir causes the appearance, to a spectator below, of different cascades, falling to the depth of about forty feet; but there is only one source. Behind are the chasms whence the water issues. We entered one of these, and passed into a cavern. Here the water appeared, rushing with great force, beneath the rock, towards the bason on the outside. It was the coldest spring we had found in the country; the mercury in the thermometer falling, in two minutes, to thirty-four, according to the scale of Fahrenheit. When placed in the reservoir immediately above the fall, where the water was more exposed to the atmosphere, its temperature was three degrees higher. The whole rock about the source is covered with moss. Close to the bason grew hazel and plane trees; above were oaks and pines; all beyond was a naked and fearful precipice 3. CHAP. VI. About (3) Upon Gargarus we found a beautiful new species, both of Crocus, and of Anemone. The first we have called Crocus candidus, and the second Anemone formosa. They may be thus described : CROCUS foliis lanceolato linearibus, flore brevioribus stigmatibus antheras subæquantibus profundissimè multipartitis, radicum tunicâ fibroso-costatâ; corollæ laciniis ellipticis. ANEMONE Scapo aphyllo, foliis crassis profundissimè tripartitis subrotundis laciniis flabelliformibus subtrilobis acutè dentatis folio superiore tripartito, laciniis bis trifidis angustis: involucro tripartito laciniis lanceolatis inferiori unidentato; petalis lato VOL. II. : |