Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/98

 74 HISTORY OF GREECE. cuitous mountain-path, which will be presently spoken of. The wall originally built across the pass by the Phocians was now half ruined by age and neglect : but the Greeks easily reestab- lished it, determined to await in this narrow pass, in that age narrower even than the defile of Tempe, the approach of the invading host. The edge of the sea line appears to have been for the most part marsh, fit neither for walking nor for sailing : but there were points at which boats could land, so that constant communication could be maintained with the fleet at Artemisium, while Alpeni was immediately in their rear to supply provisions. Though the resolution of the Greek deputies assembled at the Isthmus, to defend conjointly Thermopylae and the Euboean here before us ; for the configuration of the coast, the course of the rivers, and the general local phenomena, have now so entirely changed, that modern ti'avellers rather mislead than assist. In the interior of the MaUa,c gulf, three or four miles of new land liave been formed by the gradual ac- cumulation of river deposit, so that the gulf itself is of much less extent, and the mountain bordering the gate of Thermopylae is not now near to the sea. The river Spercheius has materially altered its course ; instead of flowing into the sea in an easterly direction considerably north of Ther- mopylae, as it did in the time of Herodotus, it has been diverted southward in the lower part of its course, with many windings, so as to reach the sea much south of the pass : while the rivers Dvras, Melas, and Asopus, which in the time of Herodotus all reached the sea separately between the mouth of Spercheius and Thermopylae, now do not reach the sea at all, but fall mto the. Spercheius. Moreover, the perpetual flow of the thermal springs has tended to accumulate deposit and to raise the level of the soil generally throughout the pass. Herodotus seems to consider the road be- tween the two gates of Thenuopylae as bearing north and south, whereas it would bear more nearly east and west. He knows nothing of the appella- tion of Callidromus, applied by Li^'y and Strabo to an undefined portion of the eastern ridge of CEta. Respecting the past and present features of Thermopylae, see the valuable obsei-vations of Colonel Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. ii, ch. x, pp. 7-40 ; Gell, Itinerary of Greece, p. 2-39 ; Kruse, Hellas, vol. iii, ch. x, p. 129. Dr. Clarke observes : "The hot springs issue principally from two mouths at the foot of the limestone precipices of OEta, upon the left of the causeway, which here passes close under the mountain, and on this part of it scarcely admits two horsemen abreast of each other, the morass on the right, between the causeway and the sea. being so dangerous, that we were very near being buried, with our horses, by our imprudence in venturing a few paces into it from the paved road." ( Clarke's Travels, vol. iv, ch. -viii p. 247.)