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Sicyon, with several cities of Achaia, stood on the south side of the gulf of Corinth. Wheler visited the former, now called Basilico. Pococke mentions a ruin on a high hill, about six miles nearer to Patræ, and supposes it Ægira. About seven miles beyond, he saw a piece of thick wall on the sea-shore, where perhaps was Helice. At Vostitza was a ruin of a small ancient building, at the west end of the town; and, in the front of an old church, a fine relief, of a lion seizing a horse. A river, the Selinus, falls into the sea to the east of the town, and has over it a large bridge. In a beautiful little plain, a league to the south, is another river, either the Phoenix or Meganitas. From Corinth to the castle of the Morea is reckoned a journey of twenty-two hours.

The places between Sicyon and Patræ, their order, their situation, their distances from the sea and from each other, are so exactly marked by Strabo and Pausanias, as not easily to be mistaken.* It is matter of regret, that travel

Then

* From Patræ to the promontory Rhium, the distance was fifty stadia. to port Panormus, fifteen. To the wall of Minerva, fifteen. To port Erinens, now, it is supposed, Lambirio, ninety. To Ægium, sixty. In the whole, two hundred and thirty stadia, or twenty-eight miles and three-quarters. Strabo reckons Rhium and Antirhium forty stadia from Patræ. This city was forty stadia nearer to Ægium by land than by sea. After some rivers was cape Drepanum. A little above the road were remains of Rypes, about thirty stadia from Ægium. Forty stadia beyond Ægium was Helice. From this city the worship of Jupiter Heliconius was transferred to lonia. The inundation attending the earthquake, which destroyed it, was so great, that only the tops of the trees in the grove of Neptune were visible. The town, though twelve stadia, or a mile and a half from the shore, was absorbed. Remnants of the buildings were discernible under the water in the time of Pausanias. Beyond Helice, on the right of the road, was Cerunéa on a mountain. Proceeding, not a great way, you turned aside to Bura, likewise on a mountain, forty stadia from the sea. The more ancient city had been absorbed with Helice. On the way from Bura, toward the shore, was a river called Buraicus, and a small Hercules in a cave,

lers toc commonly hasten along in the beaten road, uninformed of the objects on the way; when, by consulting and following those invaluable guides, they might increase their own pleasure, and at the same time greatly advance the general knowledge of ancient geography.

CHAP. LXXII.

We leave Patræ-On the coast of Etolia-Flats-The river Achelous-The islands called Echinades-The fishery-A monoxylo or skiff-Towns-Cause of the bad air in the gulfEncroachments of the river.

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WE enquired at Patræ for ruins of the ancient cities of the Peloponnesus, but unsuccessfully. The vestiges of the former inhabitants overspread the country, but have not awakened curiosity or reflection in the present race. Finding we could obtain no intelligence, we resolved to proceed in our bark to Chiarenza, or, as it was once called, Cyllene. This place was the port of Elis, and lay in our course to Zante, whither, if we tarried in the Morea, we purposed to send our baggage, retaining only necessaries for the journey. On the second evening after our arrival at Patræ, we bade adieu to the worthy consul, by whom we had been politely entertained, and descended to the sea, at a late hour, accompanied by his son; our servants lighting us with long paper lanthorns.

which was distant, on the direct road, thirty stadia from Helice, and seventy-two from the port of Ægira, crossing the river Crathis, by which Æge once stood. Ægira was twelve stadia above its port, which was a hundred and twenty from that of Pellene. This was a strong fortress, sixty stadia above the sea, and the place next Sicyon.

We passed over to the level coast opposite to Patræ, anciently called Ætolia, now Romelia. In the afternoon I went ashore in the boat with the captain, and the men gathered tall strong bull-rushes to tie the sails. Some peasants were dividing the carcase of a cow, which they had killed among the thickets at a distance, and wanted to sell part of it; but, seeing me in the long dress with a white towel round my head, the messenger mistook me for a Turk and ran away. He was prevailed on to return, and we went with him.

The water was weedy, and so shallow, that our bark anchored afar off from the shore. In the evening the air stunk abominably; and frogs croaked in chorus without ceasing. We anchored again, the following afternoon, near a very large tract of low land, overspread by the sea, and encompassed with reed-fences. These flats have been formed chiefly by the mud of the river Achelous, which was described to us as of great size, and as flooding the country in winter.

The Achelous is styled by Homer the prince of rivers. The stream descended from the north and Mount Pindus into the plain of Acarnania, and, dividing that country from Ætolia, entered the sea by the city Eniadæ, creating continually new land. Alcmæon settled near it, when directed by the Delphic oracle to fly from the Fury, which haunted him as the murderer of his mother, to some spot manifested by the sea after his pollution. The two nations, their boundaries shifting, engaged in many bloody conflicts for the region about the mouth, called the Parachelöitis.

Before the Achelous lay the islets named Echinades, many in number, barren and rugged. Several of these had been added very early to the continent, and, in the opinion of an ancient historian, it was easy to foretel the fate of the res

mainder. In the time of Strabo, the water stagnated in a large lake about Eniadæ, and, he observes, some of the Ætolian promontories had been islands. Augustus Cæsar removing the inhabitants into Nicopolis, the city which he, founded near Actium, the country was unsown, and the quantity of slime decreased. This is assigned by Pausanias as the reason, why the junction of the Echinades, with the main land, had not been completed. Depopulation has also

since retarded its progress.

The Achelous was among the rivers most noted for shoals of fish, which entered from the sea, especially in spring. It was particularly frequented by mullet, which delight in foul. and muddy water. The multitudes now taken yearly at that season on the shallows surpass belief. The rows are made into Bottarga and Caviaro; a species of food, which the ancients esteemed as a delicacy. The small sheds, erected each on a single post, extended as far as we could see, and appeared innumerable. They are designed for watchmen, who observe the finny squadrons, and, by closing the avenues of the fences, secure them in prison.

On a knoll within the inclosures was a sinall thatched hut, which we endeavoured to reach in our boat, but we grounded at the distance of half a mile. A man waded to it, and procured for us a monoxylo, or tray, the trunk of a tree made hollow. This is the common vehicle over the flats, capable of containing a very few persons; long, narrow, and unsteady; but respectable for its antiquity, being on record among the vessels in primitive use; suiting the shallows, on which navigation received its first rudiments. A boy, who espied us, fled in extreme consternation, punting with all his might toward the hut, jumping into the water, and pushing his skiff

before him, when impeded by the weeds, which spring up from the bottom. We purchased some dried fish, and returned in the monoxylo to our boat.

We could see many vessels lying at a distance off Messalongia and Nathaligo, two towns inhabited chiefly by Greeks, on little islands amid the flats. The monoxyla or skiffs carry every thing to and from the shore, and in calm weather are employed in lading them, principally with fish, spreading over the shining surface of the water, innumerable.

The wind in autumn commonly sets toward the Morea, and into the gulf of Corinth, before which the Echinades with Cephallenia lie. It becomes impregnated with salts from putrefying weeds in its passage over these extensive flats; wafting noisome vapours and disease. In the creeks, where we stopped, we had seen sick persons, removed for ease and quiet from the vessels, lying on the rocks. The complaints, which prevailed among us, may be imputed partly to fatigue. Our servants had been all ill at different times; and one, with a sailor, who attended us at Delphi, was now unable to stand on the deck.

The changes effected by the Achelous deserve to be attentively examined. The low land on the south side of the Corinthian gulf, and on the western coast of the Morea, is perhaps its offspring; and Lechæum, as well as the port of Patræ, may have been choked by the river. The traveller, who shall trace the past encroachments, will be enabled to prognosticate with certainty many future alterations. Perhaps, in some distant age, the growing soil may unite with the opposite shore of the Morea, and the entrance of the Corinthian gulf be closed up; when that water will be

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