A Few Stone Columns Of A Rough Description, Some Of
Which Were Broken, Were Lying In Various Directions, And I Noticed A
Lower Millstone Formed Of An Exceedingly Hard Conglomerate Rock; These
Pieces Were Too Heavy To Move Without Great Exertions, Therefore They
Had Remained In Situ.
After a short march of three miles we arrived at the steep banks of the
river a mile above the village of Arpera.
The bed of this river was
about forty feet below the level of the country, and here our first real
difficulty commenced in descending a rugged and precipitous track, which
at first sight appeared destructive to any springs. The gipsy-van was
conducted by the owner of the fine pair of bullocks; but this fellow
(Theodoris) was an obstinate and utterly reckless character, and instead
of obeying orders to go steadily with the drag on the wheels, he put his
animals into a gallop down the steep descent, with the intention of
gaining sufficient momentum to cross the sandy bottom and to ascend the
other side. If the original gipsy proprietor could have seen his van
leaping and tossing like a ship in a heavy sea, with the frantic driver
shouting and yelling at his bullocks while he accelerated their gallop
by a sharp application of the needle-pointed driving prick, he would
have considered it the last moment of his movable home. I did the same;
but, to my astonishment, the vehicle, after bounding madly about, simply
turned the insane driver head over heels into the river's bed, and the
bullocks found themselves anchored in the sand on the opposite side.
Glover Brothers' blue van was driven by a fine fellow, Georgi, who was
of a steady disposition; and this very handy and well constructed
carriage made nothing of the difficulty. Georgi was a handsome and
exceedingly powerful man, upwards of six feet high, of a most amiable
disposition, who always tried to do his best; but the truth must be
told, he was stupid: he became a slave to the superior intellect of the
bare-brained rascal of the gipsy-van. Why amiable people should so
frequently be stupid I cannot conceive: perhaps a few are sharp; but
Georgi, poor fellow, had all in bone and muscle, and not in brain.
There is great advantage in travelling with more than one vehicle, as in
any difficulty the numerous animals can be harnessed together and their
combined power will drag a single cart or carriage through any obstacle.
Thus one by one the vans were tugged up the steep bank on the opposite
side, and after a drag across ploughed fields for nearly a mile we
halted on the edge of a cliff and camped exactly above the river.
Although the bed was dry below this point, we found a faint stream of
clear water above our position, which was subsequently absorbed by the
sand. The cliffs were not perpendicular, but were broken into steep
declivities from successive landslips:
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