Tmolus is in general so pleasant, that it was easy to conceive ourselves in a theatre, where the scene changes every half hour; for sometimes we were surprized with an impending rock, sometimes with a perpendicular precipice, and sometimes with the murmurs of a falling brook; the whole being curiously garnished with trees, shrubs, and herbs of an infinite variety.
In four hours we had at length conquered the highest eminence of the mountain, whence we continue our journey thro a fruitful vale, enclosed on each side with two lofty ridges of the hill. On each of these remains a large quantity of snow, which, as it gradually melts, supplies a rapid current, that descends hence into Pactólus. It was observable, that the air of the whole vale was chilled to that degree by the neighbouring snows, that it was still winter in this place; nor could we here discern any buds or leaves on the same sorts of trees, which we had seen green and flourishing on the kinder parts of the mountain.
This cool and refreshing vale lasted an hour, after which we begin to descend the hill by a more steep and dangerous way, than we before had mounted; but nothing was more disagreable, than so sensible a change of air, which we now experienced, being as it were at once translated out of the frigid into the torrid zone. Such was the difference betwixt the valley we had left, and the southern part of the hill we were now traveling. This heat being added to the laborious and tedious circuits, without which the descent was absolutely impossible, brought us at length by one of the clock almost half dead to Birghée. Nor were we capable of being refreshed, either with the remembrance of that pleasant mountain, we had passed; or with the view of the Caýstrian plain, which we had then before us.
The rich products of mount Tmolus ought not here to be forgot[34], which nature has furnished with that store and variety of plants, that it may deservedly be termed the physic garden of the universe. The valley, which we mentioned, is enriched with a vein of marble, clear and pellucid enough to contend with alabaster. Nor is it to be neglected, that on the southern descent of the hill we traveled over a continued track of stone, adorned with bright and shining particles resembling gold dust; the occasion most probably of so many splendid epithets, which in antient poetry are bestowed on the Pactólus.
Birghée is a fair and considerable Turkish town, adorned with two very handsome mosques; and pleasantly seated in the road from Sardis, at the opposite foot of Tmolus. This makes it probable, it was the Hypaepae of the antients, that situation exactly answering to the description, which Ovid and Strabo have left us of it[35]. We were here received into a public kane, where we enjoyed an hearty and entire repose; tho sweetened rather by the fatigue of the foregoing day, than any entertainment or accommodation of the place.
April xxix.
We continued our journey by four a clock this morning thro the Caýstrian plain for Tyria, and had the satisfaction of fording that celebrated river about three hours from our conáck. Not far from hence we found a stone bridge of three considerable arches, built directly along the bank of the river; and therefore now serving to no other purpose, but only to witness that the stream had changed its chanel. Our way lay from hence near the course of the Caýster, thro a fertile and well cultivated champain; a place inexpressibly delicious, and which can be equalled by nothing, but the sweetness of that immortal verse:
Ἀσίῳ ἐν λειμῶνι Καϋστρίου ἀμφὶ ῥέεθρα. Iliad. β′. ℣. 461.