nveloped in forests of pine, but their summits rose in
precipitous crags, many hundreds of feet in height, hanging above our very
heads. Even after the sun was five hours high, their shadows fell upon us
from the opposite side of the glen. Mixed with the pine were occasional
oaks, an undergrowth of hawthorn in bloom, and shrubs covered with yellow
and white flowers. Over these the wild grape threw its rich festoons,
filling the air with exquisite fragrance.

Out of this glen, we passed into another, still narrower and wilder. The
road was the old Roman way, and in tolerable condition, though it had
evidently not been mended for many centuries. In half an hour, the pass
opened, disclosing an enormous peak in front of us, crowned with the ruins
of an ancient fortress of considerable extent. The position was almost
impregnable, the mountain dropping on one side into a precipice five
hundred feet in perpendicular height. Under the cliffs of the loftiest
ridge, there was a terrace planted with walnut-trees: a charming little
hamlet in the wilderness. Wild sycamore-trees, with white trunks and
bright green foliage, shaded the foamy twists of the Cydnus, as it plunged
down its difficult bed. The pine thrust its roots into the naked
precipices, and from their summits hung out over the great abysses below.
I thought of OEnone's

--"tall, dark pines, that fringed the craggy ledge
High over the blue gorge, and all between
The snowy peak and snow-white cataract
Fostered the callow eaglet;"

and certainly she had on Mount Ida no more beautiful trees than these.

We had doubled the Crag of the Fortress, when the pass closed before us,
shut in by two immense precipices of sheer, barren rock, more than a
thousand feet in height. Vast fragments, fallen from above, choked up the
entrance, whence the Cydnus, spouting forth in foam, leaped into the
defile. The ancient road was completely destroyed, but traces of it were
to be seen on the rocks, ten feet above the present bed of the stream, and
on the broken masses which had been hurled below. The path wound with
difficulty among these wrecks, and then merged into the stream itself, as
we entered the gateway. A violent wind blew in our faces as we rode
through the strait, which is not ten yards in breadth, while its walls
rise to the region of the clouds. In a few minutes we had traversed it,
and stood looking back on the enormous gap. There were several Greek
tablets cut in the