Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/233

 RIVERS. 217 dependence must be had on the valleys, which are occasionally of singular fertility. The low ground of Thessaly, the valley of the Kephisus, and the borders of the lake Kopai's, in Boeotia, the western portion of Elis, the plains of Stratus on the confines of Akarnania and .ZEtolia, and those near the river Pamisus in Messenia, both are now, and were in ancient times, remarkable for their abundant produce. Besides the scarcity of wood for fuel, there is another serious inconvenience to which the low grounds of Greece are exposed, the want of a supply of water at once adequate and regular. 1 Abundance of rain falls during the autumnal and winter months, little or none during the summer ; while the naked limestone of the numerous hills, neither absorbs nor retains moisture, so that the rain runs off as rapidly as it falls, and springs are rare. 2 Most of the rivers of Greece are torrents in early spring, and dry before the end of the summer : the copious combinations of the ancient language, designated the winter torrent by a special and separate word. 3 The most considerable rivers in the country are, the Peneius, which carries off all the waters of Thessaly, finding an exit into the JEgean through the narrow defile which parts Ossa from Olympus, and the Achelous, which flows from Pin- dus in a south-westerly direction, separating JEtolia from Akar nania, and emptying itself into the Ionian sea : the Euenus also country: "Romelia (i. e. Akarnania, JEtolia, Ozolian Lokris, etc.), woody, well-watered, and covered with a good soil, ceases at once and precipitously: while craggy limestone mountains, of a white-grey color, exhibit the cold character of Attica and the Morea." (Fiedler, Rcise, i. p. 213.) The Homeric Hymn to Apollo conceives even the Kediov irvprityopov of Thebes as having in its primitive state been covered with wood (v. 227). The best timber used by the ancient Greeks came from Macedonia, the Euxine, and the Propontis : the timber of Mount Parnassus and of Euboea was reckoned very bad ; that of Arcadia better (Theophrast. v. 2, 1 ; iii. 9). 1 See Fiedler, Eeise, etc. vol. i. pp. 84, 219, 362, etc. Both Fiedler and Strong (Statistics of Greece, p. 169) dwell with great reason upon the inestimable value of Artesian wells for the country. 3 The Greek language seems to stand singular in the expression xetpafi- jioCif, the Wadijs of Arabia manifest the like alternation, of extreme tem- porary fulness and violence, with absolute dryness (Kriegk, Schriften zur allgemeinen Erdkunde, p. 201, Leipzig, 1840). VOL. II. 10
 * Ross, Rcise auf den Griechischen Inseln, vol. i. letter 2, p. 12.