the fire, with my bed-cloths, and rain was falling heavily in large drops. A flash of blue lightning directed me to the hut, which in an instant was crowded with our men and baggage, and almost as soon let in the wet on us. This storm, however, had its use, as by assembling us it frustrated any evil intentions of the Turks.

After a most uncomfortable night, we mounted, at seven in the morning, for Suki. Our course was nearly north by west ", across the middle of the plain. We left the rocks or knolls which we observed in our way from Priene to the ferry, with Osebashá, upon the right hand, and passed a wide water-course twice. The soil was slimy and slippery, and our guide, who was on a gray horse, like his rider, stricken in years, had a fall, but was not hurt. We arrived at Suki after ten, somewhat indisposed from our late sufferings, and the janizary complaining of an old rupture. We left the khan in the afternoon; our little Turk, whom we had paid and dismissed, standing in the road, and following us with good wishes, the effusions of his gratitude and regard. We lay at Scala Nova, and the next night at Osebanar, beyond Aiasalúck. We were on horseback again before daybreak, and reached Smyrna in the evening.

In traversing the plain back to Suki, as above related, the water-course, which embarrassed us so much in going to Miletus, did not occur P. The

n Rather east of north. Query? R.

• Two forsaken channels of the Mæander; the latter of which embarrassed us so much in going from Priene to Miletus. It receives a small current from Mycale a little below Suki. R.

P It did occur, therefore your own conclusion is erroneous. It

conclusion was obvious, that it had been worn by torrents from mount Mycale. In this opinion I was afterwards confirmed by a view of it from the precipice of Priene. It is continued from the valley, where, coming from Changlee, we observed the banks steep and torn, with corn standing on the brink. The bed approaching Suki is wide and ¶ shallow, the ground being hard. It then cuts the plain with many windings, its direction most straight before Priene; and, farther on, crosses from near Mycale, 20m, west of south, its mazes very intricate; and unites with the Mæander below Miletus, deepening as it advances, and swelled after heavy rains with rills from the sides of the mountain.

r

Whelers and Spon are indebted for the account which they have published of this region to a journey begun in June, 1673, by Dr. Pickering and some merchants of Smyrna. These travellers, quitting Changlee about four in the morning, gained the top of Mycale, on which they had an extensive view; and one of them designed the mazes of the Mæander. They descended by a difficult and narrow track, and in two hours came into the plain, having left behind the remains of a castle eastward. From Samsun, or Priene, then a village at the foot of Mycale, they passed through a large plain to the

occurred not only below Suki, where the little stream from Mycale runs into it, but above that town, where the banks are very steep. R.

9 Revett has erased the words " wide and."

After "It then," Revett has inserted, " enters the water"course, which."

S P. 267.

Query, if rightly stated. R.

Mæander, called by the Turks Boiuc-Minder, or the Great Meander, which they crossed at a ferry, where it was about sixteen fathom broad, and as many deep in the middle, as the man informed them, with the current very swift. About two hours after this they arrived at Palatsha, where they pitched their tents on the banks of a large river, which, running through a great lake, falls into the Mæander.

The reader will observe, that these travellers crossed the river but once between Samsun and Palatsha. The ferry therefore was below the junction of the two beds". There the stream was called the Great Meander, probably to distinguish it, not, as has been supposed, from the Cayster, which is remote, but from the other, or Little River, which it receives. This they mistook for the principal stream, being ignorant of the true Mæander, with which the lake of Myus communicates, and which runs by Palatsha. This also lay beneath them, when on mount Mycale, and was seen distinctly, as in a chart. Their draughtsman delineated its turnings

X

" There is no high road or ferry cross the river between Miletus and the sea, consequently they could not pass below the junction of the two beds, if the water-course by Priene is meant for one of them. R.

x Heraclea. R.

y It is wonderful that their draughtsman should mistake a dry channel for the true Meander at that time, and that it has changed its course since, and joined the outlet of the lake above Miletus, whereas before it joined the outlet below that city; and moreover that this lake was the bay of Latmus, and the ruined city that of Heraclea, instead of the lake and city of Myus, which were situated in the plain up the river. Dr. Pickering, in his course cross the plain from Priene to Miletus, could not cross the

and windings for those of the old and famous river; and its mazes, which helped to impose on them, prevented even the suspicion of an error.

CHAP. LIII.

THE MEANDER MUDDY-THE BED-ITS COURSE TO THE LAKE TO THE SEA-CHANGE IN THE FACE OF THE REGION-ITS ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY-THE ISLANDS BEFORE MILETUS-THE ROCKS OF OSEBASHA-INCREASE OF LAND -ITS PROGRESS UNNOTICED-FUTURE ENCROACHMENTS.

WE have already mentioned the Mæander among the rivers of Asia Minor, anciently noted for the production of new land. The stream, it was remarked, in passing through the ploughed grounds of Phrygia and Caria, collected much slime, and bringing it down continually, added to the coast at its mouth.

The Mæander was indictable for removing the soil, when its margin tumbled in; and the person who recovered damages was paid from the income of the ferries 2. The downfalls were very frequent, and are supposed, with probability, to be the cause of the curvity of the bed; the earth carried away from one part lodging in another, and replacing the loss sustained on one side, by adding to the opposite bank.

Mæander in its present state, and two hours after arrived upon the banks of another great river before Miletus, which he was told ran through a lake; and is sufficient proof of what has been asserted in regard to the Mæander, and the change of its course since that time. R.

We have described the stream as crossing from near mount Messogis to the foot of Titanus opposite to Priene; and on that side it continues, running toward the mouth of the lake b of Myus. Probably the level of the intermediate plain determined it in that course; the soil washed from Mycale, or supplied by the torrent, raising the surface there, and forbidding its approach. The current repelled by the rocks of Osebashá, and contracted about the ferry, wore its present channel, while the mud was soft and yielding; and the bed, which we passed near them, was created from the same obstruction, the water after floods running off there more forcibly, as meeting with more resistance.

The river turns from the mouth of the lake, with many windings, through groves of tamarisk, toward Miletus; proceeding by the right wing of the theatre in mazes to the sea, which is in view, and distant, as we computed, about eight miles; the plain smooth and level as a bowling-green, except certain knolls extant in it, near midway, before Miletus d. One of these, the northermost, is seen distinct, as a hillock; and on a bigger ranging with it is a village named Bautenau. In that part is the union of the water-course of Priene with the river e, which winds to the south of the hillocks, and has on its margin, two or more miles beyond, a small fortress. The extremity of the plain by the shore appeared, from

a Latmus. R.

b Heretofore the bay of Latmus. R.

c River. R.

d Strabo, p. 580.

e Ancient channel of the Mæander with the present river. R.