Travels and Researches in Crete

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II DESCENT FROM IDA?ZONES OF VEGETATION?VILLAGE OF VORUS ?NATIVE CONFERENCES?PASHLEY'S ' TRAVELS; ITS DEFICIENCIES?REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE. At early dawn of the following day we were astir to prepare for the descent, under the escort of our famed Sfakiot guide and chief,...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II DESCENT FROM IDA?ZONES OF VEGETATION?VILLAGE OF VORUS ?NATIVE CONFERENCES?PASHLEY'S ' TRAVELS; ITS DEFICIENCIES?REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE. At early dawn of the following day we were astir to prepare for the descent, under the escort of our famed Sfakiot guide and chief, Captain Manias, of whom I shall have further occasion to speak. As we returned by the road we ascended, I shall therefore here briefly notice the features we passed on our descent to the village of Vorus, on the southern flank of the mountain, as it will be of use to a traveller making the ascent from the same place. After leaving the plain of Netha, Nidha, or Neda, by a short pass through a gap in the edge of the south face of this mountain-basin, we descend by an execrable road, for twenty minutes, over a bared and almost soilless part of the mountain-face, which during six months of the year is covered with snow. We then reach the skirts of a forest of ilex and maple, which at this zone of elevation (viz. about 5000 feet above the sea) belts the southern face of the mountain like a dark girdle, and occupies a breadth of nearly 1000 feetTHE VILLAGE OF VORTTS. 21 of altitude. The forest is dense in some parts, and is thus, from climatal influence, a vegetable zone peculiar to itself?forming a markedly distinct band between the alpine vegetation above, and the shrubs and plants of the lower regions and valleys, which next succeed it: sparingly at first, but afterwards, at 3500 feet above the sea (that is, about 2000 feet below the pass), we had around us the ordinary shrubs of the island, although somewhat stunted and sparse; and soon the wild olive took its place amongst them. The descent to the village of Vorus occupied about two hours and a half, whilst the ascent ...