Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/674

Rh 648 E U B (E A from its flanks the promontory of Chersonesus projects into the ^Egean. At the southern extremity the highest moun tain isOche, now called St Elhs, rising to the height of 4G06 feet. The south-western promontory was named Geraestus, the south-eastern Caphareus ; the latter of these was ill-famed on account of its dangers to navigation, for, being an exposed point, it attracts the storms, which rush betwcan it and the neighbouring cliffs of Andros as through a funnel. The whole of the eastern coast was rocky and destitute of harbours, especially the part called Ccela, or &quot; the Hollows,&quot; where part of the Persian fleet was wrecked, which probably lay between the headlands of Chersonesus and Caphareus. So greatly was this dreaded by sailors, that the principal line of traffic from the north of the ^Egean to Athens used to pass by Chalcis and the Euboic Sea. Euboea was believed to have originally formed part of the mainland, and to have been separated from it by an earthquake. This is the less improbable because it lies in the neighbourhood of a line of earthquake movement, and both from Thucydides and Strabo we hear of the northern part of the island being shaken at different periods, and the latter writer speaks of a fountain at. Chalcis being dried up by a similar cause, and a mud volcano formed in the neigh bouring plain. Evidences of volcanic action are also trace able in the legends connected with Hercules at ^Edepsus and Centum, which here, as at Lemnos and elsewhere in Greece, have that origin. Its northern extremity is separated from the Thessalian coast by a strait, which at one point is not more than a mile and a half in width. From the promontory of Cenaeum southwards for about fifteen miles the depth of the channel is so great that half a mile from the shore no bottom has been found with 220 fathoms of line ; the water, however, gradually shoals from this point to Chalcis. In the neighbourhood of that town, both to the north and south, the bays are so confined as readily to explain the story of Agamemnon s fleet having been detained there by contrary winds. At Chalcis itself the strait, assuming the name of Euripus, contracts to a breadth of not more than 120 feet, and is divided in the middle by a rock, on which now stands a castle. The channel towards Boeotia is spanned by a stone bridge, that towards Chalcis by one of wood ; the latter is by far the deeper channel. The extraordinary changes of tide which take place in this passage have been a subject of wonder from classical times to the present day, and are not yet explained. As you stand on the bridge you will see the current running like a river in one direc tion, and shortly afterwards it will be running with equal velocity in the other. Strabo speaks of them as varying seven times in the day, but it .is more accurate to say, with Livy, that they are irregular. They are re ferred to in several passages of the Attic tragedians. A bridge was first constructed here in the twenty- first year of the Peloponnesian war, when Euboea revolted from Athens; and thus the Boeotians, whose work it was, contrived to make that country &quot; an island to every one but themselves.&quot; Hence Ephorus remarked that nature might almost be said to have made that island part of Bceotia. The Boaotians by this means secured a powerful weapon of offence against Athens, being able to impede their supplies of gold and corn from Thrace, of timber from Macedonia, and of horses from Thessaly, for, as has been already said, their traffic from the north used to pass by this way. The name Euripus was corrupted during the Middle Ages into Evripo and Egripo, and in this latter form transferred to the whole island, whence the Venetians, when they occupied the district, altered it to Negroponte, with reference to the bridge which connected it with the mainland. The rivers of Euboaa are few in number and scanty in volume, as is natural in a rocky island, where they have so short a distance to run. In the north-eastern portion the Budorus flows into the /Egean, being formed by two streams which unite their waters in a small plain, and were perhaps the Cereus and Neleus concerning which the story was told that sheep drinking the water of the one became white, of the other black. On the north coast, near Histisea, is the Calks ; and on the western side theLelantus, near Chalcis, flowing through the plain of the same name. This plain, which intervenes between Chalcis and Eretria, and was a fruitful source of contention to those cities, is the most considerable of the few and small spaces of level ground in the island, and was fertile in corn. Aristotle, when speak ing of the aristocratic character of the horse, as requiring fertile soil for its support, and consequently being associated with wealth, instances its use among the Chalcidians and Eretrians, and in the former of those two states we find a class of nobles called Hippobotse. This rich district was afterwards occupied by Athenian cleruchs. The next largest plain was that of Histia3a, and at the present day this and the neighbourhood of the Budorus (Achmet-Aga) are the two best cultivated parts of Euboea, owing to the exertions of foreign colonists The mountains affoid excel lent pasturage for sheep and cattle, which were reared in great quantities in ancient times, and seem to have given the island its name; these pastures belonged to the state. The forests are extensive and fine, and are now superin tended by Government officials, called 8aao&amp;lt;f&amp;gt;va.Kcs, in spite or with the connivance of whom the timber is being rapidly destroyed partly from the merciless way in which it is cut by the proprietors, partly from its being burnt by the shepherds, for the sake of the beautiful grass that springs up after such conflagrations, and partly owing to the goats, whose bite kills all the young growths. In the mountains were several valuable mines of iron and copper ; and from Carystus, at the south of the island, came the green and white marble, the modern Cipollmo, which was in great request among the Romans of the imperial period for architectural purposes, and the quairies of which belonged to the emperor. The scenery of Euboea is perhaps the most beautiful in Greece, owing to the varied combina tions of rock, wood, and water; for from the uplands the sea is almost always in view, either the wide island- studded expanse of the ./Egean, or the succession of lakes formed by the Euboic Sea, together with mountains of exquisite outline, while the valleys and maritime plains are clothed either with fruit trees or with plane trees of magnificent growth. On the other hand, no part of Greece is so destitute of interesting remains of antiquity. Like most of the Greek islands, Eubcea was originally known under other names, such as Macris and Doliche from its shape, and Ellopia and Abantis from the tribes inhabiting it. The races by which it was occupied at an early period were different in the three districts, into which,, as we have seen, it was naturally divided. In the northern portion we find the Histiaei and Ellopes, Thessalian races, which probably had passed over from the Pagasoean Gulf. In central Euboea were the Curetes and Abantes, who seem to have come from the neighbouring continent by way of the Euripus; of these the Abantes, after being reinforced by lonians from Attica, rose to great power, and exercised a sort of supremacy over the whole island, so that in Homer the inhabitants generally are called by that name. The southern part was occupied by the Dryopes, part of which, tribe, after having been expelled from their original seats in the south of Thessaly by the Dorians, migrated to this island, and established themselves in the three cities of 1 Carystus, Dystus, and Styra. The name of the last-men-