bounds much with Tortoifes, for the Greeks never eat nor destroy them, unless they catch them in their gardens or plantations of Cotton and Sefamum.

We left the road of Gallipoli on the right, and came to Rodefto, the old Perinthus, from thence we left Heraclea on the left, and past Selibria, a days journey diftant from Conftantinople. The honey of Heraclea is faid to be pernicious, perhaps because the country abounds with the Chamaleon niger (a fort of Carlina) to whose root adheres a very venomous excrescence called Ixia, which may affect the Bees that feed on that plant.

I found hereabouts a milky plant (perhaps an Apocynum) with the leaves and flower of a Nerion, or the purple Lyfimachia.

Thrace is an open country without trees, like Picardy; the great plains are divided here and there with ridges and little hills: About three miles before we came to Conftantinople, we pafs'd two long wooden bridges that run over the falt marshes, upon which are many boats and mills, with eight wings or arms: On thefe lakes there is a great fishery, as alfo on the Propontis, for the Oriental People (as other nations of old) are more delighted with the fish diet than with that of quadrupeds. or birds. This may be one reason why the books of the ancients treat more of fish than of fowl, or any other animals.

СНАР.

CHA P. IV.

The ways of fifbing on the Propontis, the Bofphorus, and Hellefpont; as alfo of the fishes taken. By

M, Belon.

T

HESE feas abound extremely with fifh that pafs between the Euxine and Mediterranean, into which abundance of great fresh rivers empty themselves. The ftreights and fhoars are full of little wood cottages (wherein the Fishermen watch and obferve the feveral fhoals) and great variety of nets, both loofe and faftened to poles, of feveral figures, for the taking both of great and fmall frys: There is alfo the hook and bait-fishing up and down with long lines; the train and handnets, &c.

Befides all these ways, they practise another manner of fishing by lighted torches in dark calm nights, whereby they find the great fishes afleep, and ftrike them very filently with fharp tridents and hooked engines: This they find the most convenient for taking the greater forts of fish, which often break their nets and lines.

The common fifhes of thefe Streights are, the Tunny, and the Pelamis, Mackrel, Scads, Giltheads, Mullets, Gurnards, Sheath-fifh, Sword-fifh, the Dolphin, different from our Porpefs, the Wolf-fifh, Lampreys, the Muræna, Sphyrena, Melanurus, Salpa, Sargus, Mena, Atherina, Exocatus which ferve for baits to catch Congers, Celerinus, Sardina, Polypus, Loligo, Erythrinus, &c.

The Garus, fo common in the fhops of Conftantinople, is prepared here only out of the fanies, or ichor of the falted inteftines of the Mackrel and Scads. The red Cavear is not made of the eggs or roe of the Sturgeon, but out of the Cyprinus. (Q. Whether the author means the Bream or Carp.)

CHAP. V.

Of fome Beasts and mechanic trades at Conftantinople.

N

EAR the Hippodromus at Conftantinople, I obferved fome rare animals, which the Turkish Emperors are much delighted with, as the Onager, the Hyftrix, the Lupus Cervarius, the Lynx, the Ponticus Mus, or Ermine, many rare Weafils and odd Cats.

The Turks not ufing the Printing Trade, they levigate and polish their writing paper in box frames, by rubbing it with the Chalcedony and Jafpar-ftones, put at the end of fticks. They damask their cymeters with a blewifh colour, by macerating Sal Armoniac and Verdigreafe in vinegar, and fteeping the blades in this mixture, often pouring fresh upon them, this acts upon the fteel, and renders it of that colour upon polishing. They granulate leather for fcabbards. In the Cutlers fhops one fees great variety of Horns, Teeth, &c. as of Bufalo's, Gazels, Morfe-teeth, and other Tusks. They colour their linnen with great variety, and with many figures, which they cut in wood and there paint, afterwards ftamp and prefs it upon the linnen, or filk, as in printing upon paper, they firft polifh their linnen or cottons with pafles of fine flower. The inhabitants on thefe Streights, gather abundance of a broad leaved Alga, which they mix with a fat earth, and fo cover their houfes with it: The current running fo ftrong, cafts out great variety of marine productions, as Alcyonium, or Arkeilli, Antipathos (a fort of Coralline.)

Mr.

Mr Francis Vernon's Letter, written to Mr Oldenburg, Jan. 10. 167, giving a short account of fome of his Obfervations in his travels from Venice through Iftria, Dalmatia, Greece, and the Archipelago, to Smyrna, where this letter was

I

written.

SIR,

Muft beg your excufe for not having written to you in fo long a fpace: The little reft I have had, and the great unfettlednefs of my condition is the reafon. Neither have I now any great curiofities to impart to you; only fome fmall circumstances of my journey I will run over.

From Venice I fet out with thofe gallies which carried their Embaffador that went for the Portc. We touch'd at most of the confiderable towns of Itria and Dalmatia by the way. In Iftria we faw Pola, an anciedt Repuplic. There remains yet an amphitheatre entire; it is of two orders of Tuscan pillars, placed one over another, and the lower pillars ftand on pedeftals, which is not ordinary; for, commonly they have nothing but their bafes to fupport them. There is, befides a temple dedicated to Rome and Auguftus, a triumphal arch, built by a lady of the family of the Sergii, in honour of fome of her kindred, which commanded in these countries; betides feveral infcriptions and ancient monuments, which are in divers parts of the town.

In Dalmatia I faw Zahara, which is now the metropolis of the country. It was anciently calle Fadera. It is now very well fortified, being encompaffed on three fides with the fea, and that part which is toward the land extremely advantag'd by all the contrivances of art, having a caftle and a rampart of very lofty baftions to guard it. I found here feveral ancient infcriptions, by me copied, which will not find room in the compafs of a letter. We paf'd in fight of Zebenico, and faw three forts, which belong to the town, St Nicolo, St Gi

A a 2

oanni,

oanni, and la fortezza Vecchia; but we went not afhore. That which is most worth feeing in Dalmatia, is Spalatro, where is Dioclefian's palace, a vast and stupendious fabric, in which he made his refidence when he retreated from the empire; it is as big as the whole town, for the whole town indeed is patch'd up out of it's ruins, and is faid by fome to take it's name from it. The building is maffive; there is within it an entire temple of Jupiter, eight fquare, with noble porphyry pillars, and cornifh, worth any body's admiration. There is a court before it, adorned with Egyptian pillars of that stone called Pyropoiciles, and a temple under it, now dedicated to St Lucia; and up and down the town feveral fragments of antiquity, with infcriptions and other things worth taking notice of.

Four miles from Spalatro is Salona, which fhews the ruins of a great town. About as much farther from Salona, ftands Cliffa, upon a rocky hill, an eminent fortress of the Venetians, which is here the frontier against the Turk, from whence they repulfed him in their late wars with great honour. I was at Lefina, where is nothing very remarkable; but Blondi, that hath written our English Hiftory, was of it. Trau is ancient, and hath good marks of it's being fo. Here I fpoke with Dr Stafileo, who put out that fragment of Petronius Arbiter, and I faw his manufcript.

I was in the Harbour of Ragufi, but not in the town, because we made no ftay there. From hence we pafs'd the gulph of Budua, and faw the mountains of Antivari, the plain of Durazzo and Apollonia, and came to Saffin a fmall island, from whence we could fee the town of Valona, and the mountains Acroceraunii, which are very near, and are now called mountains of Chimara.

I staid a fortnight in Corfu, and had time to view all that was confiderable in the island, particularly the gardens of Alcinous, that is, the place where they are fuppofed to have been, now called Chryfida, a moft delicious fituation: The ancient port, now called Nexpodnassa and feveral foundations of ancient fabrics. In Zante I was likewise a fortnight, where I saw but little of Antiquity: What is modern is very flourishing, and the iland rich and plentiful."