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the joy of all the Greeks and Italians of Smyrnas, as well per-
haps of those Turks who were able to discern any meaning in the
incident. My newly made friend took pleasures in bearing witness
to the satisfaction which this humiliation of Austria produced.
I inquired after dried figs when on show but was told that they were
scares and of inferior quality. The crop is bought up by English
and other foreign dealers and Smyrna figs can be found more
easily in London and Paris than in the locality of their curing.
During the harvest, in June, there is great activity; large quantities
of the fruit arriving daily on the backs of dromedaries, and a large
number of persons find profitable employment for weeks attending
to the washing, drying and packing.

We left Smyrna towards sunset of our second day with the weather
looking stormy. During the night a regular gale began to blow and
there was some uneasiness among the lady passengers. The steamer took
refuge however behind a headland not far from the entrance to the
Dardanelles where we remained all the next day, quite near a little
Turkish town. Among the other passengers taken in at Smyrna was
a Capt Chads of the English heavy artillery, a nephew of an Admiral
of the same name commanding the Baltic fleet. I had several pleas-
ant conversations with him and found him quite companionable.
At night in the cabin several round games were organised by the
gentlemen in which the ladies took part, and altogether our evening
was profitably spent.

While at Smyrna there was anchored near us three superb English
ships-of-the-Line or Line-of-battle-ships.-the Hannibal, Princess
Royal and St Jean d’Acre, which were on their way to Malta for
the winter. They were not quite the largest ships in their navy, being
only three-deckers. Two other ships of the same class but having 4 decks had lately
been built; the Royal Albert and Duke of Wellington, both of which
were in the Black Sea, the former being the flagships of Admiral
Lyons. A ball was given on board of one of these ships the night
that we were near by, and I should have liked very much to have
been able to attend. I mentioned this to Capt Chads the next day
and he told me how easy it would have been for him to procure an
invitation for me, as he had been present himself.

The morning after remaining in safety from the gale behind the headland
we were underway again and passing through the Dardanelles. The pas-
sage occupied the greater part of the day and there was nothing particu-
larly attractive in the scenery on each side. The gale had lowered the
temperatures to the freezing point and there were traces of snow on the
hills around. The celebrated Castles of the Dardanelles were two large
forts, one on each side, the passing between which caused some delay
while certain formalities were being observed. In the course of the after-
noon we entered the Sea of Marmara and stopped for some freight a
nd passengers at a little town on the European show, called Gallipoli,
which was one of the camping places of the British as their troops were
being concentrated in Turkey for the war against Russia.