rite tree! Our way was a woodland road; a storm had
passed over the region in the morning; the earth was still fresh and
moist, and there was an aromatic smell of leaves in the air. We turned
westward into the entrance of a deep valley, over which hung a
perpendicular cliff of gray and red rock, fashioned by nature so as to
resemble a vast fortress, with windows, portals and projecting bastions.
Francois displayed his knowledge of mythology, by declaring it to be the
Palace of Pan. While we were carrying out the idea, by making chambers for
the Fauns and Nymphs in the basement story of the precipice, the path
wound around the shoulder of the mountain, and the glen spread away before
us, branching up into loftier ranges, disclosing through its gateway of
cliffs, rising out of the steeps of pine forest, a sublime vista of blue
mountain peaks, climbing to the topmost snows. It was a magnificent Alpine
landscape, more glowing and rich than Switzerland, yet equalling it in all
the loftier characteristics of mountain scenery. Another and greater
precipice towered over us on the right, and the black eagles which had
made their eyries in its niched and caverned vaults, were wheeling around
its crest. A branch of the Cydnus foamed along the bottom of the gorge,
and soma Turcoman boys were tending their herds on its banks.

Further up the glen, we found a fountain of delicious water, beside the
deserted Khan of Mezarluk, and there encamped for the night. Our tent was
pitched on the mountain side, near a fountain of the coolest, clearest and
sweetest water I have seen in all the East. There was perfect silence
among the mountains, and the place was as lonely as it was sublime. The
night was cool and fresh; but I could not sleep until towards morning.
When I opened my belated eyes, the tall peaks on the opposite side of the
glen were girdled below their waists with the flood of a sparkling
sunrise. The sky was pure as crystal, except a soft white fleece that
veiled the snowy pinnacles of Taurus, folding and unfolding, rising and
sinking, as if to make their beauty still more attractive by the partial
concealment. The morning air was almost cold, but so pure and bracing--so
aromatic with the healthy breath of the pines--that I took it down in the
fullest possible draughts.

We rode up the glen, following the course of the Cydnus, through scenery
of the wildest and most romantic character. The bases of the mountains
were completely e