sible shapes, to the no small wonder of the peasants, who expected to see it break at every moment. They were a little disconcerted on discovering, as we were about to leave, that we could understand what they said. About one o'clock we got under way again, and, having yet seven hours of traveling, rode as fast as we could across the plain in a direct line to Constantino, a village with Turkish fortifications, by which we passed to the opposite side of the valley of the Pamisus, and commenced the ascent of a part of Mount Teffagi. The acclivity was very difficult and tiresome, as was the descent on the opposite side. It was already dark when we reached the bank of the Bouzi, the ancient Neda, and crossed it. Presently we overtook our baggage-horses and their drivers, like ourselves benighted on the mountains. They had lost much time on the way, not knowing the roads. We now came to a ravine, which, being a little difficult to cross, detained us an hour in the cold, while our guide went off to call a shepherd to show us the way. At length we reached the Khan of Dragoi.

PHIGALEA, OLYMPIA, AND ARCADIA.

OUR stay at the khan of Dragoi was somewhat longer than we had anticipated. We were all exhausted with yesterday's work, and felt reluctant to set out again. Indeed, J. was indignant that the guide should call us at four o'clock, and vowed that he for one would not get up. Seeing the rest of us nearly ready, however, he thought better of it, and concluded to terminate his slumbers. Still it was seven o'clock before we started.

The village of Dragoi, or Tragoge, is composed of scarce more than half a dozen houses or huts, in the best of which we lodged last night. The hill on which Phigalea was built we saw at a distance to the west. It is crowned with an acropolis of Cyclopean masonry. As it offered nothing of much interest, we began ascending the mountain on the east, and in about an hour and a half reached the temple we were in search of, situated a little below the summit, but commanding a very fine view southward to Mount Ithome, and westward toward the city of Arcadia on the sea-shore. To-day, however, the atmosphere was not at all clear, on account of the warm and disagreeable Sirocco wind, which had been blowing without intermission for the last three days. Though it

does not produce the same bad effects as in Arabia and Africa, its presence is at once detected by the difficulty experienced in respiration, and by the very hazy and indistinct appearance it imparts to all distant objects, and especially to the mountains, without the intervention of any clouds.

The Temple of Apollo Epicurius of Bassæ we examined with much interest, both because it was built by Ictinus, architect of the Parthenon, and because its parts are more distinctly traceable than those of any other Grecian temple. It is an edifice of the Doric order, not of the largest size, being only one hundred and twenty-six feet long and forty-eight feet wide. The row of columns that ran around the building, and formed a continuous portico, is entire, with the exception of three that have fallen. Each front was supported by six columns. Behind these two more stood before the entrance to the body or cella, the position of whose walls is now marked only by a course or two of stones. The floor of the temple has an oblong depression, some thirty-three feet long, in the centre.* Here the great statue of Apollo must have stood, until it was removed to grace the city of Megalopolis, only seventy years after the foundation of the temple. Around this spot we noticed the lower parts of five half columns on either side. They formed the supports of a small interior portico; but the statue itself was uncovered. All the statuary of this beautiful temple has been removed to the British Museum, where the beauty of the sculpture, added to the remarkable purity of the Parian marble, make it conspicuous among the Greek antiquities. The lonely site of this structure, on this high and barren Arcadian mountain, remote even in ancient times from any large village, strikes one as very singular. It is, however, referable to the fact that this temple was erected by the inhabitants of Phigalea, a town some miles distant, to commemorate their deliverance, through the supposed intercession of Apollo, from a devastating pestilence. In an architectural point of view, its most salient peculiarity is

* Many archeologists suppose that these depressions were made for the purpose of retaining the liquids that were often poured over ivory statues, to prevent decomposition occasioned by exposure to the atmosphere in an open court.

BANKS OF THE ALPHEUS.

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the form of the columns, which taper perhaps more than those of any other Greek edifice, and closely resemble those at Pæstum.

Having satisfied our curiosity by this inspection, we returned a part of the way toward our last night's resting-place, and then commenced a fresh ascent. At the end of two or three hours we reached the large village of Andritzena, beautifully situated on the northern slope of a hill, facing the valley of the River Alpheus.* Though very straggling, it was certainly the largest and neatest place we had passed through since leaving Sparta. It is said to have been entirely destroyed by the Turks during the Revolution, when this part of Peloponnesus suffered most severely from the ravages of Ibrahim Pasha and his Egyptian troops. We sat in a private house to lunch, and while our horses were resting were accosted by a Roman exile, who had fled hither after the suppression of liberty in his native city. Few of these refugees have penetrated so far into the interior, though many are inhabitants of Athens.

The prospect as we commenced the descent was lovely; it extended for a considerable distance over the beautiful valley of the Alpheus to the hills beyond, surmounted by the snowy head of Olonus. In the valley we entered upon a paradise of flowers. No part of Greece is more plentifully clothed with vegetation, and almost none contains a smaller population in proportion to its natural resources. The fertile soil is covered with clumps of trees and shrubs of moderate size, that give it the aspect of a park. The laurel, lentisk, prickly oak, and thorn, just coming into blossom, lend variety to the landscape. To us the sight possessed peculiar charms, since, in the course of a few hours, we had passed from a region where winter had scarcely loosed its bands, into another climate, where the benignant reign of summer was already begun. Two hours more of riding among the hillocks of the plain, at no great distance from the Alpheus, brought us op

*In crossing the mountains this morning, we noticed with regret the wantonness with which many forest trees of great size have been destroyed. The shepherds, it appears, are accustomed to light fires by night at the foot of the largest trees; and in this way about half of them remained only as blackened trunks, left to rot.

posite to the village of St. John, or Hagios Joannes. A fording-place was found without much difficulty. At other seasons of the year, or after heavy rains, the Alpheus is frequently much swollen. We had been by no means certain that it would not be necessary to ride farther up, and thus lose a day in crossing; or else go down as far as Agolonitza, near the mouth of the stream, where communication is kept up between the banks by a regular ferry-boat. We lodged in a house on the bluff overhanging the Alpheus, at a few minutes' walk from the principal part of the village.

Hagios Joannes is supposed to occupy the site of the important city of Heraa, of which no traces can be detected but a small piece of Roman brick-work, lying some distance back from the river. It is situated at the point where the Alpheus, forsaking its northwesterly course through the upper valley, turns and flows in the direction of the sea. Olympia, which we were next to visit, lies on the same side of the river, and the road thither follows the bank of the stream. The body of water is small, varying in breadth from 50 to 150 feet; but it is, nevertheless, the largest and widest river in Southern Greece. Its bed is at times much wider, and sometimes divided by two or three islands. Though the water is now shallow, scarcely reaching to the knee, the course changes exceedingly from year to year. There may frequently be seen dry tracts, which at some time or other doubtless formed part of the bed. This is peculiarly striking in the vale of Olympia, where the marks left on the alluvial soil have been mistaken by some antiquarians for the site of a stadium or hippodrome.

On our way we forded a couple of tributaries to the Alpheus. The first was the Rouphia or Ladon, a stream of considerable length, rising in the mountainous region of Northern Arcadia, and drawing most of its waters from the Lake of Phonia, through an underground channel or katavothron. The people of the neighborhood give the name of Rouphia to the united stream also, below its junction with the Alpheus. The other tributary, the Erymanthus, derives its appellation from the mountain where Hercules is fabled to have slain the Erymanthian boar. It is known at present as