Il8 EXPEDITIONS BEFORE ALEXANDER. [CHAP. be the same. Here from a height of between 7,000 and 8,000 feet above the sea, the eye which has been accustomed to the treeless uplands and monotonous plains of Armenia looks down upon forest-clad mountains and delicately cut ridges, separated from one another by ravines, and gradually descending towards Trebi- zond; while, away to the north-east, cape after cape is seen extending into the Euxine, backed by ranges which run up to the snow-topped mountains of Lazistan, and the whole is completed and harmonized by the soft blue expanse of water. The entire view, from its delicacy and multiplicity of form, and its com- bination of sea and mountains, strikingly resembles the coasts of Greece. When suddenly presented to the eye of a Greek, it must have spoken to him of home in every line. Another point in Xenophon's narrative on which modern observation nas tnrown Hght» is his account of the poisonous honey of this region, after partaking of which his soldiers displayed all the symptoms of intoxication and frenzy1. This is now known to have been due to the moisture that distils from the flowers of the Azalea pontlca^ which grows in profusion in the valleys at the back of Trebizond; this is poisonous, and affects the honey of the bees that feed upon it. A similar circum- stance is related by Strabo with regard to Pompey's forces during his campaign in these parts; only in that case the honey seems to have been obtained immediately from the trees3. Before concluding this chapter} it may be well to notice a treatise belonging to the period before Alexander, ofScyiax.PUS which, though not actually a record of any expedi- tion, yet contains a summary of information which must have been obtained in the first instance by means of nume- rous coasting voyages. This is the work which is known as the Periplus of Scylax of Caryanda, but which is of much later date than the reign of Darius, in which that explorer was supposed to have lived, and appears to have had his name attached to it in 1 Anad., 4, 8. 20. 8 Strabo, 12. 3. 18; ol ft fE7rraKU>/tfjrai rpeis Ho/urqfot; ffirctpas toej?lotferas -rip 6peu>tyt Jtepdcwres Kpwrijpw to rats 6Sofc rov naivoftfy Qfyovw ol djcpe^es rStv dtvfyw irioO xal iraparifaw StexaptffWTQ rods