Jews, with many Germans, French, and English, amounts to nearly 70,000 souls. The chain of Mount Athos commences here at the village of Sidero-Kapsi, and terminates at the most eastern point of the Chalcidian Chersonesus.-Orphano is a considerable trading-town, near the lake of Talcinos, upon the northern coast of the gulf of Strymoniaca.- Alla-Kislassi, about one mile to the N. of Jenidje, is built upon the site of the ancient Pella, once the capital of the kingdom of Macedonia. Its inhabitants are Albanians.-Vodyna on the Vistritza, was the ancient place of sepulture of the Macedonian kings.-Veria or Cara-Veria, in this district, is on the site of the ancient Berea. Athos.] Athos was no less celebrated for its height and bulk, than Olympus for its amazing loftiness. It is, properly speaking, a chain of mountains eight leagues long, and four broad, running far into the sea, and joined to the mainland of Macedonia by an isthmus which Xerxes, the Persian monarch, proposed to cut through and separate from the Continent. This peninsula anciently contained six cities. Its elevation has been prodigiously exaggerated: by Mela it is affirmed to reach above the clouds or middle region of the air. Martianus Capella asserted it to be six miles high; and it was a received opinion that rain never fell on its summit, because the ashes left on the altars erected near its top were always found as they were left-dry and unscattered. Its elevation was made so great by Plutarch and Pliny, that its shade was supposed to be projected, when the sun was in the summer-solstice, on the market-place of the city Myrrhina, in the isle of Lemnos. The latter made the distance between the foot of Athos and the island of Lemnos 87,000 paces. Supposing the shadow to have been observed when the sun was in the vertical circle, a little before sun-set, or rather two degrees higher, as otherwise the shadow could not be so exactly observed at Lemnos, the result on geometrical principles, would have been an elevation of 32 stadia, or more than 4 English miles, an altitude greater than that of Chimborazo, the highest of the Andes. The accuracy of the result depends on the exact distance between the two points, which has not yet been determined. At any rate the distance assigned by Pliny is by far too great, being 87, instead of 55 miles; which, being assumed as the true distance, reduces the elevation to 11 stadia or 7,500 geometrical, or 8,000 English feet. Its height has been given in Walpole's Memoirs of European Turkey, at 713 toises, or 4,350 English feet, and by Kastner at 3,353 feet. A later measurement, taken barometrically by captain Gautier, has been inserted in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, for December 1821, which fixes its true altitude at 6,776 English feet. It is as celebrated in modern as in ancient times, being now called the "Ayov "Ogos, or the Holy Mountain:' there being now no less than 30 monasteries erected by Greek devotees, and inhabited by about 6,000 recluses, on its summit and sides. Athos commands a splendid view of the Cyclades and Hellespont. CHAP. XII.-GREECE. THE political and physical geography of this highly interesting country has, till of late, been very imperfectly known. It seems strange, that whilst for nearly three centuries, a deep and intimate knowledge of the immortal language of this once glorious country was deemed an essential part of an academical course,-a knowledge of its geography should have II. 4 c formed no part of polite education. Hence it followed that we were long as ignorant of the geography of Modern Greece as of Central Asia. It was considered as a country not worth knowing-as being inhabited by rude and barbarous tribes, under the sway of fanatical Turks, who had annihilated all traces of its ancient glories, the descendants of its ancient inhabitants were imagined to have totally disappeared under the ruthless and destroying hand of Ottoman despotism, or to have lost every trace of resemblance to their celebrated ancestors. Yet supposing that all this had been the case, still it was surely worth while to know something of the country that produced such a wonderful people,-to be acquainted with those natural beauties and varied scenery whence so many inspired poets have drawn such animated descriptions,-to compare its physical phenomena with its poetical imagery. But nothing of this was done; and the only intelligible accounts we possessed of Grecian geography were drawn from Strabo and Pausanias. The inquiries of a Spon and a Wheeler, of a Le Roy and a Stuart, were suited only to classical readers and people of taste. These accounts were succeeded by Chandler's travels, which were more adapted to general use, and gave some gleams of light respecting the political and physical state of this country. The travels of Anacharsis by the Abbe Barthelemy, accompanied by an elaborate geographical memoir of Ancient Greece, with particular maps of all the ancient political divisions of that country by Barbie de Bocage, contributed more than any other prior performance to excite public curiosity. The interdiction of all commerce with continental Europe during the late war, when the power of France was at its acme, directed the attention of British travellers towards Greece and Asia Minor; hence we have been supplied with copious details from the pens of Clarke, Dodwell, Laurent, Hughes, Hobhouse, Holland, and other travellers of the day, respecting the physical geography of Greece, and the present state of its inhabitants. Our possession of Malta, and particularly of the seven Ionian Islands, has likewise brought us almost into contact with this country. The contributions of British geographers and travellers on the subject of Greece are daily enlarging; and the French government has very recently sent out an exploratory scientific commission to the Morea, at the head of which is M. Bory St VinOur knowledge of Grecian geography is therefore on the increase; and now that the struggle for political freedom has been crowned with success, and her political existence formally recognised by the Porte, and guaranteed by the leading powers of Europe, our acquaintance with Greece will soon be as complete as our knowledge of any other country in Europe. cent. General Divisions.] Greece, or the country of Hellas, may be divided into three geographical sections :-Thessaly, Livadia, and the Morea, to which also we might add the islands of the Archipelago. But the two latter portions of this remarkable country will be better treated by themselves, and in this chapter we shall confine ourselves to the geography of Thessaly and Livadia. Physical Features.] More than half the surface of Greece is made up of mountains, and consequently incapable of culture. All the land capable of culture does not perhaps constitute two-fifths of the whole. The country is generally bare of wood, and, from the want of inclosures, the profusion of weeds and brushwood, the thinness of the population, and the ruinous condition of the few cottages, combined with the crumbling remains of the noble structures of the ancients-has a desolate, melancholy, and deserted aspect, well-harmonizing with the fallen fortunes of the country. "And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, In the end of summer, from the excessive heat which dries up the streams, the hills and fields appear parched. In many parts of the country, however, there are copious perennial springs, which gush out suddenly from the limestone rock. Every feature essential to the finest beauties of landscape is combined here, except large rivers, which are perhaps incompatible with the general character of the scenery. Its mountains belted with woods and capped with snow, though far inferior to the Alps in absolute height, are perhaps as imposing from the suddenness of their elevation. At their feet lie rich and sheltered plains, wanting nothing but an industrious and free population to fill the mind with images of prosperity, tranquillity and felicity. It is, however, the combination of these more common features, with so many spacious bays and inland seas, broken by headlands, enclosed by mountains, and speckled and studded with islands in every possible variety of magnitude, form, and distance, that renders Greece superior in scenery to every other part of Europe. The effect of such scenery, aided by a serene sky and a delicious climate, on the character of the Greeks, cannot be doubted. Under the influence of so many sublime objects, Greece became the birth-place of taste, science, and eloquence, the native country of all that is graceful, dignified, and grand, in sentiment or action. Northern poetry, nursed amidst bleak mountains, seas covered with constant fogs, and agitated by storms, is austere, gloomy, and terrific; but what subjects for varied poetry must exist in a land where heaven and earth seem to be brought together,-where the mountain-tops shining above the clouds seem as thrones for immortal beings,-while Apollo the long, long summer gilds,' and the ever-azure heavens, and 'laughing seas' smile upon and encircle the verdant earth? The Muses have consequently haunted the mountains and the vales, the hills and the rocks, the woods and the groves, the fountains and the streams of Greece. In this rich and beautiful land, imagination awakened into action, was gay, joyous, and luxuriant; and still "Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted holy ground; Long to the remnants of thy splendour past Which sages venerate, and bards adore As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore!" Nearly the whole surface of Greece is occupied by a great formation of compact limestone, of a whitish or bluish-grey colour, approaching in some cases to the nature of chalk. In some places, it forms long continu ous sharp ridges; in others, round or craggy summits, and it presents strata highly inclined. It contains a few organic remains, with many flint nodules, and some beds of gypsum on the west side, and occasionally masses of calcareous conglomerate. The Acropolis of Athens consists of calcareous conglomerate; Parnassus and Helicon are entirely formed of compact limestone; and the soil rests on mica-slate near Athens. The bills of Attica are composed generally of primitive limestone, and this substance, with clay-slate, serpentine, sienite, and porphyry, abound in Negropont, the central parts of Pindus, Olympus, and Athos, and all round the gulf of Salonica. Farther N. in mount Scomius and Rhodope, granite and gneiss are found. It is to the peculiar constitution of this great limestone formation, that Greece owes those physical features which so remarkably distinguish it—the numerous caverns, fountains, subterraneous rivercourses, hot springs, and gaseous exhalations, which originated so many of the popular superstitions of the ancients. Mountains.] The Hellenic mountains may be regarded as forming the S.W. branch of the Turkish Balkan; but in addition to the general details already furnished respecting them, the following information, it is presumed, will be acceptable in this place. Olympus.] The celebrated mountain Olympus was considered not merely as the loftiest summit in Greece, but even, in the opinion of the ancient geometricians, as the highest elevation of the globe. Its height, we are informed, was accurately measured by the philosopher Xenagoras, and found to be 10 stadia and a plethrum, or nearly 7,000 English feet. This is somewhat more than the elevation assigned to it in the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences, by John Bernouilli, where it is given at 1,017 toises, or 6,512 English feet. The misfortune is, that in these measurements no mention is made of a fixed base, to enable us to judge of the accuracy of the calculations. Snow is said to lie frequently on certain parts of Olympus during the whole year. The ascent, however, is perfectly practicable in the summer-season. Olympus is now called Elimbo in Romaic, and Samavat Evi, or the Celestial House,' in Turkish. The appellation Olympus, perhaps, formerly denoted any very lofty eminence, as it was common to many celebrated mountains. Thus it was given to one in Pieria in Macedonia; to a second in Bithynia; to a third in Mysia; to a fourth in Cyprus; a fifth in Crete; a sixth in Lesbos or Mitylene; a seventh in Elis; an eighth in Arcadia; a ninth in Lycia; and a tenth on the western side of the Attic Peninsula. "Towards the S.E." says Dr Clarke, "and rather behind our route as we journeyed towards Tempe, appeared Mount Pelion; but the view of Olympus engrossed our particular attention, owing to the prodigious grandeur into which its vast masses were disposed. We had never beheld a scene of bolder outline. In this grand prospect, the only diminutive objects were the distant herds of cattle, grazing in detached groups on the plain in the foreground. All the rest consisted of parts of such magnitude, that, in their contemplation, animated nature is forgotten. We think only of that Being who is represented in the immensity of his works, and thereby indulge the same feelings which first induced the benighted heathens to consider the tops of their mountains as habitations of the Most High God." 8 "8 The best view of this far Such are the feelings excited in the minds of the Hindoos at sight of Mount Himalla, to which Olympus, great as it is, is comparatively diminutive. They consider this lofty range as the abode of their divinities, and its highest summits as the seat or throne of the Great God. Those peaks which surpass the rest in elevation are mytho famed mountain is from the plain of Pella to the N., or from the city of Salonichi, where its magnitude is such as to fill all the view towards the western side of the gulf of Thermæ, and actually to dazzle the eyes of the beholder with the radiance reflected from its snow-clad summit. Instead of seeming remote from the place of his observation-though 55 miles distant-so enormous is its size as to seem close to his view. It will not however present so sublime a spectacle in the summer-months, when its snows are melted; and its elevation is considerably inferior to that of the Asiatic Olympus, whose summit is always covered with snow, and is distinctly visible from Constantinople, though more than 100 miles distant. The base and sides of Olympus are covered with thick woods of oak, chesnut, beech, and planetree; and the acclivities are clothed with large pine-forests, giving that sombre appearance to it so often alluded to by the poets, being denominated by Horace, Opacus Olympus; and by Seneca Pinifer Olympus. Its summit is an obtuse cone, with somewhat of a concave line on each side. Parnassus.] The famed Parnassus seems to be regarded by Clarke and Holland as the loftiest summit in Greece-nay, by the former it is considered as one of the highest in Europe. It is amazing how Clarke could either say or think so; as it does not enter the region of constant congelation, and cannot therefore be half the elevation of Mounts Rosa and Blanc, or the Orteler Horn. He ascended it in the month of December, and reached the summit, after consuming 4 hours only in the journey from the village of Arracovia. This village is indeed pretty high up the mountain; three hours distant from Delphi at its foot; but as the road from the latter to the former is an easy ascent, with a number of windings, it is plain that the elevation cannot be very great. The summit was a plain in the bottom of a crater, containing a large pool of water, then frozen over. The sides of this crater, rising in ridges around this plain, are the most elevated points of Parnassus. The summit therefore strongly resembles that of Kader Idris in Wales. These sides were then a glacier, covered with hard and slippery ice. The atmosphere was clear and cloudless, and the thermometer in the open air fell to two degrees below the freezing point. The prospect was varied, sublime, and extensive: the gulf of Corinth seemed a mere pond, and towards the N., beyond all the plains of Thessaly, appeared majestic Olympus, with its many tops, clad in shining snow, and expanding its vast breadth distinctly to the view. The logically denominated Mahadeva Calinga, which signifies the Throne of the Great God.' Hence, such exalted summits are viewed with the deepest veneration by the Hindoos, and they prostrate themselves whenever these salute their eyes. "To the east was the sacred mountain (the Hindoo Olympus) tipped with snow, and called Cailas or Mahadeva-Ka-Linga. Turning his face, our Pundit raised his hands, with the palms placed over his head; then touching his forehead, he suddenly placed them on the ground, and going on his knees, pressed his forehead to the ground. This raising of the hands and prostration of the body and head, was repeated seven times: the other U'niya, less devout, perhaps, contented himself with three salutations and a prayer."-Asiatic Researches, vol. xii. p. 420. This summit was at least 80 miles dis tant. Lofty as Olympus was represented by the poets, yet an altar was erected on its summit, where Jupiter was worshipped. But no such worship could be paid by Hindoos to their mountain-deities enthroned in snow. Their habitation-to use the language of the Chaldeans to Nebuchadnezzar-is not with flesh: for literally speaking no flesh can dwell there. We are told in the Hindoo mythology, that an Indian fakir lost his way in attempting to reach Jumnotree, and began to ascend the mountain where the goddess Jumna dwelt, till he reached the snow, where he heard a voice inquiring what he wanted. On his reply, a mass of snow detached itself from, the side of the hill, and the voice desired him to worship where the snow stopped; adding that Jumua was not to be so closely approached or intruded on, in her sacred recesses.→→ Frazer's Tour to the Himalaya Mountains, p. 420. |