PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 213 



Lake Copais is the receptacle of tlie drainage of the valley of the 

 Cephissus and of the plain of Chseronea, which is watered by the 

 Hyrcinns, Permessus, Olmeus, Lophis, and other streams that 

 descend from Helicon. All these streams flow in on the south 

 and west sides, where the shores of the lake are simply a continu- 

 ation of the adjacent plains ; but on the north, east, and southwest, 

 where the waters would naturally find an outlet to the sea, the 

 banks form steep, rocky shores. 



At the southeast extremity the lake ends in the Bay of Car- 

 ditza, which is inclosed in a fold of Mount Sphingium, an off- 

 shoot of Helicon, and at the northeast in the Bay of Topolias or 

 Kephalari, inclosed in Mount Ptoum. A depression in the flank 

 of Sphingium is called the Hill of Carditza, and behind this, be- 

 tween it and Mount Ptoum, is a smaller lake, Hylice or Hylicus 

 (Likeri). Further east, near the seacoast, lies Mount Messapium, 

 with another small lake, called Paralimni, between it and Mount 

 Ptoum. A similar depression in Mount Ptoum, east of the Bay of 

 Kephalari, is called the Hill of Kephalari. The Copaic basin is 



Plan of the Wells. 



thus a natural cul-de-sac, with no apparent outlet ; but the pent- 

 up waters have worn fissures through the limestone rocks under- 

 lying the hills and formed for themselves, perhaps with some 

 volcanic aid, as Strabo suggests, subterraneous outlets into the 

 Euripus or channel of the sea between Boeotia and Euboea. 

 There are twenty- three of these subterraneous passages, locally 

 called katabothra, but many of them unite underground and 

 only four reach the surface on the east side of the hills. Of 



