2 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these four outlets, one passes southward under Mount Sphingium 

 into Lake Hylice or Likeri, from which there is probably a sub- 

 terraneous communication with Lake Paralimni and beyond it 

 with the sea. The three others pass eastward under Mount Ptoum 

 and its offshoots. The principal one, called the Katabothra of 

 Bynia, with two openings on the lake side, passes under the Hill 

 of Kephalari in a general direction from southwest to northeast, 

 and opens on the east side of the hill in a large grotto about forty- 

 five metres lower than its source, whence its waters flow through 

 the deep ravine of the Valley of Larymna into the sea, 



Strabo says that Lake Copais is three hundred and eighty 

 stadia (about forty-seven miles) in circuit, but it differs greatly 

 at different seasons, sometimes threatening to inundate the whole 

 valley and sometimes forming only a series of fens overgrown 

 with reeds the auletic or flute reeds of the ancients, from which 

 Pan's pipes were made. Its bottom, which is ninety-five metres 

 above the sea, is a nearly level plain with a slight incline toward 

 the east and a little elevation in the center. Modern travelers, 

 from the time of Sir George Wheler upward, have noted on both 

 its north and its south shores the remains of ancient dykes, in some 

 parts re-enforced with masonry. These dykes, in several places 

 still used as roads, have generally been considered as ancient 

 causeways, means of communication in times of flood between the 

 towns on the banks ; but they are now shown to be parts of a sys- 

 tem of drainage canals by means of which the superfluous waters 

 of the basin were led to the katabothra under the hills. 



The recession of the waters through the efforts of the present 

 engineers has shown that there were three main canals through 

 the entire length of the lake, branching at their western ends into 

 subsidiary canals or feeders for collecting the various tributary 

 waters. These main channels, which for convenience' sake we 

 will call the north, middle, and south canals, are constructed 

 partly of excavations and partly of a series of dykes or cause- 

 ways, strengthened where necessary by walls of cyclopean ma- 

 sonry. The north canal, the most carefully and solidly con- 

 structed of the three, receives the waters of the Cephissus and 

 conducts them into a common channel with those of the Melas, 

 a stream which, rising near Orchomenus, is navigable almost 

 from its source. After their junction the waters flow through a 

 bed, formed on the north by the rocky shore of the lake and on 

 the south by a massive embankment re-enforced by masonry, be- 

 hind the island of Topolias, the site of ancient Copse. Thence the 

 canal leaves the shore and, embanked on both sides, crosses the 

 Bay of Kephalari and conducts its waters into the natural fissures 

 under the mountain. This double embankment, though partly 

 ruinous, is still plainly traceable. 



