Page:Lands of the Saracen 1859.djvu/310

CHAPTER XXIV.

 

THE MYSIAN OLYMPUS.

 

Journey Down the Valley — The Plague of Grasshoppers — A Defile-The Town of Taushanlü-The Camp of Famine — We leave the Rhyndacus — The Base of Olympus — Primeval Forests — The Guard-House — Scenery of the Summit — Forests of Beech — Saw-Mills — Descent of the Mountain — The View of Olympus-Morning — The Land of Harvest — Aineghiöl — A Showery Ride — The Plain of Brousa — The Structure of Olympus — We reach Brousa — The Tent is Furled.

 

"I looked yet farther and higher, and saw in the heavens a silvery cloud that stood fast, and still against the breeze; * * * * and so it was as a sign and a testimony — almost as a call from the neglected gods, that I now saw and acknowledged the snowy crown of the Mysian Olympus!"Kinglake.

 

Brousa, July 9, 1852.

From Daghje Köi, there were two roads to Taushanlü, but the people informed us that the one which led across the moun. tains was difficult to find, and almost impracticable. We therefore took the river road, which we found picturesque in the highest degree. The narrow dell of the Rhyndacus wound through a labyrinth of mountains, sometimes turning at sharp angles between craggy buttresses, covered with forests, and sometimes broadening out into a sweep of valley, where the villagers were working in companies among the grain and poppy fields. The banks of the stream were lined with oak, willow and sycamore, and forests of pine, descending from the mountains, frequently overhung the road. We met numbers