Greece

Y. The valley of Macedonia, which extends in a se micircle round the head of the Gulf of Salonica, is the largest and most fertile 'district in Greece. Its produce has been supposed to be nearly equal to that of all the rest of the country. The rivers in the lower pasts, which overflow annually, render the country marshy, and subject to the malaria. It contains a considerable number of ancient remains, but they have only been partially examined. A large tumulus still marks the site of the battle of Pydna, which reduced Macedonia to a Roman pro.. vine. Thessaly, separated from Macedonia by Olympus and the Cambunian mountains, is a vast circular basin, of fifty or sixty miles diameter, en closed on all sides by mountains, and next in ferti lity to Macedonia. The whole of its waters flow off by the River Peneus. The celebrated vale of Tempe, a deep ravine, formed by precipitous cliffs, six or eight hundred feet high, and separating Mount Olympus from Ossa, affords a passage for this river to the sea, on the east. The vale is about five miles long, and so narrow, that the river, in some parts, occupies the whole breadth of its bottom : the sce nery is more striking by its grandeur than its beau ty. The rocks, which are of bluish grey marble, have a shattered appearance, and wherever the sur-' face admits of it, are covered with trees and shrubs. Some of the ancients believed that this defile was formed by an earthquake. Were any natural con vulsion to close it up, Thessaly would again be con. verted into a lake; and Xerxes, when he invaded Greece, threatened the Thessalians with this cata. strophe, if they opposed lihn. The rocks of Me.. teora, at the upper side of the Thessalian plain, are objects of a very remarkable kind. They rise from the level surface of the country near the Peneus, and cover a triangular space of two miles each way. They consist of a great collection of lofty rocks, in the various shapes of cones, pillars, rhomboids, and irregular masses, all standing detached from one another, with faces generally as perpendicular as a wall. Their height varies from one to three or four hundred feet, and the deep winding intervals be tween them are filled with trees and brushwood. On the summits of some of these rocks mona steries are suspended in mid air, as it were, on • the tops of very tall pillars. Some of the monasteries occupy the whole surface of the rock they rest on, and persons ascending to them are swung in a bas ket or net, and dragged up by a rope passing over a pulley. The rocks are composed of a conglomerate, consisting of fragments of granite, gneiss, and other primitive substances, disposed in horizontal strata. The narrow district on the eastern side of Mounts Ossa and Pelion is the ancient Magnesia, and is now called Zagora. At the south extremity of Thessaly lies the famed pass of Thermopylae, which is merely the narrow space between the flank of Mount (Eta and the sea. The part of this space nearest the sea is occupied by a marsh • between which and the cliffs the breadth of firm land is still about sixty paces, as stated by Livy. The hot springs mentioned by Herodotus ; the remains of the wall built by the Phoceans, and a tumulus, believed with good reason to be that of the Spartans, are all yet to be seen. The length of the pass is about five miles. The country of Phocis, which lies immedi ately south of the pass; is one of the moat rugged in Greece, being occupied almost entirely by the branches and declivities of Mounts CEta, Parnassus, and Helicon. Bceotia is a large circular valley, en• closed by Parnassus on the west, Helicon on the south, Cithirron on the east, and a range of high lands on the north. A low ridge running north and south divides it in two. The lake Copan, which oc. cupies the bottom of the western and larger division, and receives all its rivers, sends off its waters by subterraneous passages to the sea on the north-east. In summer this lake has the appearance of a green meadow covered with reeds. has more than once been inundated by obstructions in' these sub terraneous channels. The country is very fbrtile; but is higher and colder than Attica. It is often co• vered with thick fogs, as described by the ancients ; and, from the abundance of its marshes, is very sub ject to malaria. Attica, which adjoins to Bceotia•on the east, is comparatively arid and barren, hilly rather than mountainous, but distinguished pecu.

Early by the dryness and elasticity of its atmosphere, and the beauty and serenity of its climate. The isthmus of Corinth, which connects Attica with the Mores, is occupied towards the north by high rocky hills, which render it strong as a military post; but in the south, where its breadth is about four miles, the surface is low, seldom exceeding 150 feet. The remains of the ancient wall, and of the canal begun by Nero, are yet visible. The Mores con sists of an elevated central Plateau or valley, name ly, Arcadia,—and of five separate districts, formed by the exterior declivities of the mountains which surround the central plateau, and by spurs or branches which run off from these mountains. The central valley of Arcadia, so famed for its pastoral, character by the ancients, is like the inland districts of Thessaly and Bceotia, high and cold, often covered with fogs, arising from the moisture of its soil, and hence also subject to malaria. All its waters escape by the single channel of the Alpheus ; and it has sometimes suffered from partial inundations. Its scenery, in the opinion of Lord Byron, is by no means deserving of its ancient celebrity. Argolis, lying in a semicircle round the Gulf of Nauplia, embraces but a small portion of level country, which, however, is remarkably rich, but very un healthy. The city of Argos still exists in its an cient plan, and is one of the best built towns in the Mores. The ancient Laconia, consisting of the long open valley of the Eurotas, is very thinly peopled. The ruins of Sparta, four miles south west from the village of Mistra, are extensive, but afford no fine specimens of architecture ; the spot is entirely deserted. Messenia, which lies round the head of a gulf, has a pretty large plain, of a very rich soil. Elis, on the west, and Achaia, on the north of the Morea, are in general hilly, and rather dry. In general, the west of Greece has a different physical character from the east. ./Etolia, Acarna nia, and Epirus (the modern Albania), present none of those circular basins so characteristic of the east and south sides of the country, except the valley surrounding the Gulf of Arta. iEtolia and Acar nania consist of long vallies open to the south, and rising into mountains in the north. Albania has the same features on a larger scale. Its mountains, which are more numerous than those of any other district of Greece, cover the country in long parallel ridges, and are separated by deep willies, some of which open to the south, and others to the west, but none to the north. The Cyclades, and other islands in the Egean sea, are almost all steep and rocky.° The mountains of Greece, which cover so large a proportion of its area, are partly wooded and partly naked. The low country susceptible of tillage pro bably does not amount to more than two-fifths of the whole surface, and of these two-fifths, judging from the torn, olives, cotton, tobacco, &c. required for the population, one-twelfth or fifteenth part may be actually in cultivation. It is generally bare of wood, and, from the want of enclosures, the pro fusion 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, which harmonizes well with the fallen fortunes of the country. In the end of summer, from the excessive heat which dries up the streams, the hills and fields appear parched. In many quarters of the country, however, there are copious perennial springs, which gush out suddenly from the limestone rock. Greece combines in the highest degree every feature essential to the finest beauties of landscape, except large rivers, which are perhaps incompatible with the general character of its scenery. Travellers of taste have wanted words to describe the magnificence of the views it affords. Its mountains encircled with zones of wood, and capped with snow, though much below the Alps in absolute height, perhaps are as imposing from the suddenness of their elevation. Rich sheltered plains lie at their feet, which want nothing but an in dustrious population to fill the mind with images of prosperity, tranquillity, and happiness. But it is in the combination of these more common features, with so many spacious and beautiful inland bays and seas, broken by headlands, enclosed by moun tains, and specked and studded with islands, in every variety of magnitude, form, and distance, that Greece surpasses every other country in Europe,' and perhaps in the world. The effect of such scenery, aided by a serene sky, and delicious cli mate, on the character of the Greeks, cannot be doubted. " Under the influence of so many sub lime objects, the human mind becomes gifted as by inspiration, and is by nature filled with poetical ideas." Greece became the birth-place of taste, science, and eloquence, the chosen sanctuary of the muses, the prototype of all that is graceful, digni fied, and grand, in sentiment or action. The poetry of the north, nursed amidst bleak mountains,--amidst oceans covered with fogs, and agitated by storms, is austere and gloomy ; but the muses of Greece, awakened into life in a rich and beautiful land, amidst bright and tranquil seas, are gay, joyous, and luxu riant. You almost conceive (says Chateaubriand), as it were by intuition, why the architecture of the Parthenon has such fine proportions, why ancient sculpture is so unaffected, so simple, so tranquil, when you behold the pure sky and delicious scenery of Athens, of Corinth, and of Ionia. In this native land of the muses, nature suggests no wild devia tions: she tends, on the contrary, to dispose the mind to the love of the uniform and the harmonious. t The climate of Greece seems to be distinguished from that of Spain and Italy in the corresponding lati tudes, chiefly by having the characteristics of an in land region in a higher degree ; that is, the extremes of Summer and winter are more severe., In Attica,

which has a drier atmosphere and •more uniform temperature than the rest cff the country, the age rain is about 21 or 22 inches, and the greatest heat, in each of the four years ending with 1807,avas 104, 99, 93, 94. 'The greatest coldiyu from 28 to 82 of Fahrenheit. The mean all these extremes is 63.5. This agrees very nearly with the temperature of a spring in the isthmus of to rinth, observed by. Dr Clarke, 64°, and with the mean annual temperature given in Professor Leslie's .table, is 64.4. At the southern extremity the annual temperature, according to the same authority, is 65.3, and at the northern extremity about 60. But local diversities have a greater effect than mere difference of latitude on the distribution of the sea sons. In Attica, which being freely expOSed to the sea, has in some measure an insular climate, the win ter sets in about the beginning of January. About the middle of that month snow falls, but is seldom seen for more than a few data, though it. lies for month on the summits of the mountains. Gentle rains fall about the middle of Febrilary, after which' spring commences • and the corn, which is •a consi derable height in March, is cut in May. In the be ginning of March, the vines and olives bud, and the almonds are in blossom. In the great interior plains and vallies, which are girt with mountains and cut off from the direct influence of the sea, the winters are much colder, and the summers, mak ing allowance for the difference of height, are warm er. • At Tripolitza, in Arcadia, the snow has been found 18 inches thick in January, with the ther tnometer at 16° Fahrenheit ; and it sometimes lies on the ground six weeks. Dr Clarke was inform. ed, that in the winter preceding his visit, the pea sants at the foot of Mount Cithoeron in Bceotia were confined to their houses for several weeks by the snow. At Janina, situated in an inland plain, 100 or 1200 feet above the sea, the snow lies to a considerable depth in the winter, and sometimes falls as late as April. The neighbouring lake was so firmly frozen over in 1813, that it was every where crossed on the ice. The summits of the central chain of Pindus, and most of the Albanian moun tains, are covered with snow from the beginning of November to the end of March. These various facts show that the winter in Albania, though shorter than in England, is as severe ; but that the summer is a vast deal hotter, the extreme summer temperature be. ing 15 or 18 degrees higher at Athens than London; while Bceotia and Thessaly are probably,still hotter Plan Attica. Though we have no accurate data to establish a comparison between the climate of Greece and those of Spain and Italy, yet the fact of cotton being successfully cultivated, on a large scale, in Macedonia, al5 far north as the latitude of Rome and Valadolid, where it does not succeed in the two last countries, is a proof that the summer temperature in Greece is higher.than either in Spain or Italy. The coldest weather in all parts of Greece is accom panied with a north-east wind. The north and north-west winds are distinguished by their serenity and dryness. The zephyr or west wind is famed for its balmy softness ; the south-east, south, and south 'west winds are all humid, and the east wind still retains the character of a morning breeze, as de scribell.by Aristotle. The sirocco is felt.in Greece. It blow's from he south-east, and produces its usual areas dti the human conititution,—a sense of op. Kession, a dull teadach, with lassitude and unea. siness in the. limbs. Earthquakes are very fre quent in Greece, but they are seldom very destruc tive. • Modern travellers affofd us but scanty information respecting the mines of Greecebut, from its geo logical structure, we may conclude that it is like 'Italy, rather poor in metals: The working of the veins which do exist is neglected by the Turks, from want of skill, or abandoned in consequence of the oppressiye exactions of the government. It is chiefly on the east side of Greece, where the older rocks protrude through the superincumbent lime stone, that metalliferous veins have been found. The silver mines of LaCrium, in Attica, which were ex tensive enough to employ 10,000 slaves and sup ported the Athenian navy at one period, are now entirely abandoned. Copper also was anciently • found in Attica. Ores of iron, gold, silver, lead, or alum, were wrought in Eubcea and in Melos, Naxos, Siphnus, and others of the Cyclades. The gold and silver mines of Macedonia yielded Philip 1000 talents a-year. At Nisvoro, in this country, there is still worked a silver mine, which affords a scanty pro• duce of from 50 to 400 okes t of silver, and 4000 or 5000 okes of lead annually. Marbles of many va rieties are abundant in Greece. Those of Paros and Mount Pentelicus, which are both highly crystalline, were employed in the finest works of sculpture and architecture. 4t. Selenitza, in North Albania, there is a very extepsive mine of asphaltum, or compact neral pitch. The bed, 70 or 8u feet thick, and near the surface, is supposed to extend over as of four miles in circumference. Carburetted as issues from several crevices of the ground near it, and inflames spontaneously,—a phenomenon dis tinctly alluded to by ancient authors, and connected in this end other instances with the superstitions of the Greek mythology. t There are few or no diseases peculiar to Greece. Like all the countries on the shores of the Mediter ranean, it suffers greatly from malaria. This pre vails chiefly in the months of August and Septem ber, and produces, remittent qr intermittent fevers, which attack those who reside in low situations, near the mouths of rivers, or in the neighbourhood of lakes, marshes, or •rice grounds. The ancients were aware, that fevers of this description affected certain districts ; but, undoubtedly, the sphere of their influence has been vastly extended by the ne glected state of the country. Attica, though one of the driest districts of Greece, is not entirely exempt ed from them. These fevers, recurring freguently, vitiate the system, and produce goitses and scrofq louo complaints. Coughs, catarrhs, and apoplexies, are prevalent in some districts ; and elephantiasis, and leprous affections, arising probably from defi cient and unwholesome nourishment, are more com mon than in other countries. The plague occurs at irregular periods, and makes great ravages, but is generally believed to be imported from Constantino ple, Smyrna,. or Egypt. The first appearance of this dreadful scourge spreads alarm and terror through the whole community. The affrighted ima ginations of the people represent to them nocttirnal concerts of music, voices murmuring amidst the si lence of night, spectres wandering about on the roofs of houses, covered with funereal rags, and call ing out the names of those who are to be cut off from the number of the living." A rapacious and tyt'annical government, like the Turkish, depresses every species of industry, but is particularly fatal to agriculture, which requires the investment of large capitals, with the prospect of on ly distant returns, and which yields products that cannot be concealed. The Turkish landlords and farmers are too sluggish and ignorant to attempt the smallest improvement; the other clOsses are too much exposed to pillage; all be affected by the insecure tenure of their lands. In Greece, as in other parts of Turkey, all lands hold immedi ately of the Sultan, and on the demise of the incum bent, vest anew in him. When the Turks conqtier eil the territories they now occupy, the lands were taken from the native proprietors, and a part of them distributed among Turkish colonists in . Zaints and Tiraars t (the one exceeding MO acres in extent, the other from 300 to 51)0)on condition that the possessors, with a stipulated number of followers, should serve in the armies during -war. Any of these properties which fell vacant during active ser vice was bestowed upon the volunteers who had signalized their valour in the hope of obtaining such rewards ; and there are instances of the same lord ship having been eight times disposed of in tile course of one campaign. Another part of the land was appropriated for the support of mosques, or as appanages to the great officers of state, the mother and mistresses of the suhan, and the children of the i • mperial family. The residue, burdened with a ter ritorial impost or land-tax, was left, by an undefined tenure, to the Amcient inhabitants.' (Thornton, 164.) In general, both Greeks aid Turks pay a quit rent to the Aga or local governor, besides the land-tax of one-tenth to' the sultan. We do not find it any where stated what proportions these different species of property bear to one another; but it is obvious that a great part of the land is held by persons who have but a liferent interest in it ; and thottigh custom may temper a rule so pernicious, and the right of re . gumption may not be rigorously exercised at the de mise of each incumbent, it will still be made a ground for vexatious demands, and render the transmission of property dependant on the caprices of provincial governors. To this must be added the farther inse curity arising from bad laws badly administered ; from the extortions practised by every class of public functionarie%, civil and religious ; and, last of all, From the depreations of bands of robbers, who de scend from the mountains, sometimes in parties of five or six hundred, to dispute with the local rulers the right of plundering the unhappy husbandound Ali, the Pacha of Albania, permits no sale or trans.. fer of lands within his ddminions, without his spe cial consent. He holds great quantities of land himself; and, not content with buying it from those who are disposed to sell, he compels others, by quartering soldiers on them, and harassing them by vexatious demands; to part with their lands for an inadequate price. He is now believed to be th4 proprietor of one-third of the whole cultivated country under his government In such circum stances, it need not surprise us that cultivation is badly conducted, the peasants poor and wretched, and the country a wide waste, affording a miserable subsistence to two millions and a half of inhabitants, where three or four times as many lived in comfort and prosperity in the days of Xenophon. t.