On the 26th of March I went up Hymettus, in company with Sir F. A. who has been visiting Athens with a party from Corfu, among whom is Dr. Skey. The road takes a direction nearly east, to the convent of St. Cyrian, or as I understood the name, St. Sergian. It lies up the valley of the Ilissus, and afterwards follows a ravine uniting with it, or perhaps forming a part of it, for amongst the ravines descending from this mountain, I find it difficult to decide which water-course ought to preserve the name. In our way we observed a beautiful ornament over the entrance of a _metokhi_, or farm establishment. The convent is embosomed in a shady little hollow at the foot of the mountain, and has by it a pretty copious spring of good water, which however soon disappears, being either diverted, or evaporated among the olive-grounds, or lost amongst the rocks and stones. There are some badly worked columns, and some bad capitals, not originally made for them. There is also another, but smaller and less perfect fragment of the ornament we had seen over the gateway of the _metokhi_, and a ram’s head at the fountain. No doubt this delicious spot was anciently appropriated, but nothing remains to determine in what manner. Dr. S. and myself ascended the mountain from this point on foot. The whole of it seems to consist of a limestone, intimately connected with the mica slate, though the greater part contains little or no mica; and not to be of the same nature with that of the Musæum or Pnyx. I imagine the convent to stand about 400 feet above the sea, and the mountain to rise about 1,600 feet above the convent. On the side towards Athens it descends in rugged and uneven slopes, but on the opposite side, it is very broken and precipitous. We saw Parnassus, a mass of snow; Helicon, with two or three white stripes near the top; Cyllene, and a long range from it, deeply capped with snow, and Delphi in Eubœa, where the snow descended in ribs almost half way down; all the other mountains were clear, and we had an extensive and varied prospect of sea and land, but the day was not favourable. A very deep ravine tending to the west, tempted Dr. S. and myself to its examination. Some of the rocks were of a very white and pure marble, but there were no marks of its having been quarried. Others were of breccia, lying on the steep slope of the mountain, and broken off abruptly, so as to have at first sight, the appearance of running under the marble. The ravine is two or three miles in length, covered with bushes, and in the upper part are trees of the _Pinus Halepensis_, but we descended without seeing or hearing any signs of any animal bigger than an insect, and very few of them. The weather during the first part of our stay at Athens was in general very fine and pleasant, the glass rising to near 60° in the shade during the day. The wind was sometimes cold, but we had hardly any rain. A high wind when it occurs is particularly inconvenient