NOTEBOOK of the way around the deep circular basin, and has the cleanest, neatest two- and three-story square cream- colored buildings we have seen. [Sketch of small sailing- craft.] Boats are not pretty but how they fly, and how ex- quisitely skillful these Greeks are in handling them. I would like to stay with them a while. Bad news. They had touched at infected ports —all ports were likely to be that—and were not allowed to land. Athens Thursday Aug. 15, '67. We were put into quarantine at once, yesterday, and rather than be cooped up at anchor remote from shore for ii days the captain decided to lie still 24 hrs., then sail direct for Constantinople. It was remarked by the Commandant of the port (at Piraeus) that guards would be set, and a watch kept upon us, and anyone found breaking the quarantine by stealing ashore would be severely dealt with—and quarantine laws in these countries are usually harsh, and even un- necessarily cruel, sometimes. It was a bitter disappointment to the whole ship's com- pany, to be so near to famous Athens and not be per- mitted to visit it. We could see the city vaguely defined in the distant valley, with the glass. With the naked eye we could see the grand ruins on the Acropolis, and with the telescope could count the columns of the Parthenon. We imagined we could trace out Mars Hill (the Areopagus where Paul preached, where the highest court was held 3 days in a year, and where Demosthenes thun- dered his Philippics into the ears of the disheartened Athenians); we believed we could see the Museum Hill 7*