THE AQUEDUCT OF BAGHTCHÈ-KEUI.       146

when they were on their way to the siege of Micaea, - a reminiscence which is often renewed by the sight of Turkish tents on the same spot; the meadow of Buyukdèrè being a favourite resort of the Sultan, who in the summer months repairs thither to witness wrestling matches, the exercise of the jereed, and other athletic games performed in the open air.

Near the centre of the valley stands a platanus of enormous size, which is condered to be probably the largest in the world. It measures forty-seven yards in circumference near the root, an it is asserted that its branches overshadow a circular extent of upwards of four hundred feet. The enormous trunk is divided into fourteen stems, the forks of several being now hidden by the soil whichhas accumulated above them, while others are distant as much as seven or eight feet from the earth. One has been broken off at an immense height, and another is entirely hollow, apparently from fire, and is frequently used by the goat-herds as a refuge during storms.

Perhaps no platanus ever sung by the ancients, honoured by the admiration of an Emperor, haunted by the philosopher and the patriot, or nourished by the Anacreontic libations of Roman revellers, deserved immortality more fully than that of Buyukdèrè. A French naturalist has conjectured that it must have existed more than two thousand years; yet still its gigantic branches spread far and wide, garlanded with fair fresh leaves, an its sturdy boughs rebound from the pressure of the tempest-wind which sweeps over them in its fury, with all the firm free vigour of eternal youth; generations pass away - the infant rises into the boy - the boy strengthens into the man - manhold withers into old age - and the grave closes over the dead: - another race succeeds, and yet another, and another; while the same tree lives on, hale, and green, and flourishing, mocking at poor mortality, and weaving a new web of beauty with every changing season. The triumph of man's strength and of men's ingenuity, the stately aqueduct of Baghtchè-Keui, still stands indeed, and has also endured throughout its weary centuries; but like all man's works it is perishable and imperfect. The ponderous masonry is loosened and displaced - the surface of the stone is corroded by the tooth of time, and the action of the atmosphere - lichens and caper-plants have rooted themselves amid the interstices of the building; and while the platanus bursts out into fresh youth with every coming spring, each revolving year renders the human monument more weak and hoar and writes upon its gigantic arches the characters of decay.