Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/229

 GENERAL GEOGRAPHY OF GREECE. 213 oy the narrow cleft, containing the river Drin, from the limestone of the Albanian Alps. From the southern face of Olympus, Pindus strikes off nearly southward, forming the boundary be- tween Thessaly and Epirus, and sending forth about the 39th degree of latitude the lateral chain of Othrys, which latter takes an easterly course, forming the southern boundary of Thessaly, and reaching the sea between Thessaly and the northern coast of Eubo:a. Southward of Othrys, the chain of Pindus, under the name of Tymphrestus, still continues, until another lateral chain, called O3ta, projects from it again towards the east, forming the lofty coast immediately south of the Maliac gulf, with the narrow road of Thermopylae between the two, and terminating at the Euboean strait. At the point of junction with (Eta, the chain of Pindus forks into two branches ; one striking to the westward of south, and reaching across .ZEtolia, under the names of Arakynthus, Kurius, Korax, and Taphiassus, to the promon- tory called Antirrhion, situated on the northern side of ths narrow entrance of the Corinthian gulf, over against the cor- responding promontory of Rhion in Peloponnesus ; the other tending south-east, and forming Parnassus, Helicon, and Kithae- ron ; indeed, JEgaleus and Hymettus, even down to the south- ernmost cape of Attica, Sunium, may be treated as a continuance of this chain. From the eastern extremity of CEta, also, a range of hills, inferior in height to the preceding, takes its departure in a south-easterly direction, under the various names of Knernis, Ptoon, and Teumessus. It is joined with Kithaeron by the lateral communication, ranging from west to east, called Parnes ; while of Olympus, have been yet but imperfectly examined : see Dr. Griesebach, Keise durch Rumelien and nach Brussa im Jahre 1839, vol. ii. ch. 13, p. 112, seqq. (Getting. 1841), which contains much instruction respecting the real relations of these mountains as compared with the different ideas and repre- sentations of them. The words of Strabo (lib. vii. Excerpt. 3, ed. Tzschncke), that Scardus, Orbelus, Rhodope, and Hsemus extend in a straight line from the Adriatic to the Euxine, are incorrect. See Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 335: the pass of Tschangon, near Castoria (through which the river Devol passes from the eastward to fall into the Adriatic on the westward), is the only cleft in this long chain from the ">er Drin in the north down to the centre of Greece.