in trying to find some conveyance, we gave it up and started on foot;
and were glad afterward that we did so. The road was shaded to the base
of the mountain, and led through a beautiful valley, the fields covered
with wild-flowers. I have never seen such masses of color--an acre
perhaps of bright yellow, perfectly dazzling in the sunlight, then as
large a mass of purple, next to that an immense patch of white daisies,
so thick they looked like snow. The effect of these gay masses, with
intervals of green grass and grain, was very gorgeous. We passed two of
the sultan's palaces, one built in Swiss style. The ascent of Giant
Mountain from the inland side is gradual, while it descends very
abruptly on the water-side. On the top of the mountain are the ruins of
the church of St. Pantaleon, built by Justinian, also a mosque and the
tomb of Joshua: so the Turks affirm. From a rocky platform just below
the mosque there is a magnificent view. Toward the north you look off on
the Black Sea and the old fortress of Riva, which commands the entrance
to the Bosphorus. In front and to the south winds the beautiful
Bosphorus for sixteen miles till it reaches the Sea of Marmora, which
you see far in the distance glittering in the sunlight. You look down on
the decks of the passing vessels, and the large steamers seem like toy
boats as they pass below you. Near the mosque is a remarkable well of
cool water. Shrubs and a few small trees grow on the mountain, and the
ground is covered with quantities of heather, wild-flowers and ivy. We
picked long spikes of white heather in full bloom, and pansies,
polyanthus, the blue iris and many others of our garden flowers. The
country all around Constantinople is very destitute of trees. The woods
were cut down long ago, and the multitudes of sheep, which you see in
large flocks everywhere, crop the young sprouts so they cannot grow up
again.

[Illustration: FORTRESS OF RIVA, AND THE BLACK SEA.]