Flora and flora of Greece resembles that of other countries of s. Europe. Among the tame animals of ancient Greece were the horse, mule, ass, ox, sheep, goat, swine, dog. The swine supplied the favorite flesh meat. Of wild animals, we find the wolf, bear, boar, and even lions at an early period. Sheep and goats are still very plentiful, and in fact constitute one of the most important smuces of wealth to the Greeks. Oxen are much used for plowing, but milch cows are little prized, and scarce. At the present day, the wolf, bear, lynx, wild-eat, boar, stag, roebuck, fox, jackal, badger, marten, and many other wild animals are found in the forests. Hares, snipes, Nvildducks, and other game are very abundant; while eagles, vultures hawks, owls, etc., are found in considerable numbers. The tortoise is very common, but the inhabitants have a great aversion to it.
agricultural implements are still as rude as in the clays of the Peloponnesian war, or even of Hesiod; and this added to the scarcity of plowing oxen, ruggedness of the country, general thinness of soil, and difficulty of tillage and irriga tion, is enough to damp the ardor of even a more energetic population. The houses of the country-people are in most parts little better than mere hovels, and a large propor tion of the amble land is untilled. The modes of tillage are of the most primitive kind; and thus, though nearly half the male population of Greece is employed in agricultural labors, they make but slight impression on the general aspect of the country, and influ ence little the amount of exports; in fact, they do not produce as much grain as supplies the wants of the population, and that, too, though a higher yield is given in many parts of Greece than in this country. Much labor, however, is bestowed•on the cultivation of the olive, vine, mulberry, and fruit trees. The greater part of the land belongs to the state; rent is paid in kind, and in a certain proportion (one-third) to the net produce. The proprietor is in very many cases obliged to furnish the metayer, or tenant, with seed to sow the ground, and with oxen to plough and prepare it; and as the metayer has an interest in the farm for only one year, there is little encouragement for either landlord or tenant to expend largely in improvements—such as drainage, fences, clearing of the soil, and comfortable farm-steadings. The country, however, is better suited for a pas toral titan an agricultural people. Arcadia is still the land of shepherds, as it was of old. The flocks are driven to the valleys near the coast in winter, and in April to the hills.
manufactures are few and unimportant. Cotton and woolen stuffs, and some minor articles are made by the peasantry for domestic use. Ship
building is carried on at most of the sea-ports; and silks, gauze-stuffs, cutlery, hardware, earthenware, leather, saddlery, and such articles are made in small quantities in some of the principal towns, and more especially on the islands. The Greeks have great skill in embroidering in silk, gold, and silver; also in sculpture, and in the cutting of marble. Carpets arc made in the island of Andro, and straw-hats at Lifanto. The modern Greeks are not behind their great ancestors in the art of dyeing in bright colors.
circumstance tends to make the Greek a man of commerce. He is of a quick, active, versatile, practical turn of mind, and possesses all those qualities which insure success in business. The bays and gulfs of the sea-indented shore allure him to the waters, while the strong currents and frequent squalls on his iron-bound coast soon render him an expert and fearless seaman. The islanders are thrown into a sea faring life even more than the people of the mainland. Greece occupies a position in the Mediterranean, which, for commercial advantages, cannot he surpassed. The exports of ancient tiraes were of course mainly the products of the soil, the trees, and the mines; mud the same do they remain at the present day. Raw produce, as cotton, corn, clump figs, and other honey, wax, valonia hark, silk, and sponge 1.re the most cornifidu. Firdfn western Europe manufaetartd goods of all kinds and the produce of our colonies are largely imported; while Turkey. from her provinces in Europe and in Asia, supplies coffee, rice, timber, drugs, and other articles of eastern growth. The Greek merchants speculate largely in the grain trade. The principal sea ports are Syra, Pirams, Pat•as, and Nauplia, and the ports with which they trade most are Constantinople, Leghorn, Trieste, Palermo, and Smyrna. The mercantile navy of Greece is very large, amounting to upwards of 6,000 vessels, many of 500 or 600 toms, but the majority are small craft, for short voyages from island to island, or to ports near Greece. It is as agents and carriers that the Greek ship-owners are specially engaged. They are, in fact, the great commission-agents and carriers of the Mediterranean. Greek merchants have now established themselves in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and other towns of the British empire, as well as in those of France and of Germany; and as they have greater facilities for collecting articles of commerce from the inland parts of their own and contiguous countries, besides, as they despise no sort of commis sion or merchandise, however small or insignificant, they now usurp almost the entire traffic of the Ottoman empire, of Persia, and of other eastern countries.