On Friday, the holiday of the Turks, the scene in the Asiatic Sweet Waters is just as animated; and here there is much more to interest us Europeans, as the company consists chiefly of Turks, male and female.  The latter have, as usual, their faces covered:  the most beautiful feature, the flaming eye, is, however, visible.

The trip across the sea to the Asiatic Sweet Waters is incomparably more beautiful and interesting than the journey to the European.  We travel up the Bosphorus, in the direction of the Black Sea, past the splendid new palace of the Sultan.  Though this palace is chiefly of wood, the pillars, staircases, and the ground-floor, built of marble of dazzling whiteness, are strikingly beautiful.  The great gates, of gilded cast-iron, may be called masterpieces; they were purchased in England for the sum of 8000 pounds.  The roof of the palace is in the form of a terrace, and round this terrace runs a magnificent gallery, built only of wood, but artistically carved.  We also pass the two ancient castles which command the approach to Constantinople, and then turn to the right towards the Sweet Waters.  The situation of this place is most lovely; it lies in a beautiful valley surrounded by green hills.

Very interesting is also an excursion to Chalcedonia, a peninsula in the Sea of Marmora, on the Asiatic side, adjoining Scutari.  We were rowed thither in a two-oared kaik in an hour and a quarter.  The finest possible weather favoured our trip.  A number of dolphins gambolled around our boat; we saw these tame fishes darting to and fro in all directions, and leaping into the air.  It is a peculiar circumstance with regard to these creatures, that they never swim separately, but always either in pairs or larger companies.

The views which we enjoy during these trips are peculiarly lovely.  Scutari lies close on our left; the foreground is occupied by mountains of moderate elevation; and above them, in the far distance, gleams the snow-clad summit of Olympus.  The uninhabited Prince’s Island and the two Dog Islands are not the most picturesque objects to be introduced in such a landscape.  To make up for the disadvantage of their presence we have, however, a good view of the Sea of Marmora, and can also distinguish the greater portion of the city of Constantinople.

On Chalcedonia itself there is nothing to be seen but a lighthouse.  Beautiful grass-plats, with a few trees and a coffee-house, are the chief points of attraction with the townspeople.

An excursion by sea to Baluklid is also to be recommended.  You pass the entire Turkish fleet, which is very considerable, and see the largest ship in the world, the “Mahmud,” of 140 guns, built during the reign of the late Sultan Mahmud.  Several three-deckers of 120 guns, some of them unrigged, and many men-of-war mounting from forty to sixty cannons, lie in the harbour.  For an hour and a half we are riding through the Sea of Marmora, to the left