Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/292

shore as to leave on the northern coast a considerable space of plain in some places. Some of this land is devoted to the cultivation of the small vine from which raisins are made, which Cos exports in considerable quantities, but not of very fine quality. There is also a good deal of rich arable land not half cultivated, but capable of producing large crops of grain. The island is very much depopulated, and has only four villages besides the principal town. The first day we rode as far as Pyh, distant about three hours from the town of Cos. After passing through the gardens in the environs, we traversed a narrow strip of plain lying at the foot of the barren central range of mountains. This plain is planted with vineyards. At a ruined church, called Agios Pantalemos, distant about an hour and a half from the town, I copied two sepulchral inscriptions. On our left, we passed the village of Asphendu, which lies under the mountain-range, and on our right some salt-works on the sea-shore, which here, as elsewhere in Turkey, are a great cause of malaria. At Pyli is a very interesting Greek tomb, consisting at present of a chamber rather more than 18 feet long, and covered over with a horizontal vault. Its height is 9 feet 8 inches. In each side are six oblong recesses or theæ, each of which appears to have been closed by a door, as a piece of iron has been inserted in the architrave. The stone of which this tomb is built is a travertine. One of the blocks in the roof is nearly 8 feet long. Over the tomb is a little church called Stavro, in the walls of which a number of fragments of Ionic archi-