698 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



devour her. After inspecting the latter, instead of slaying him out- 

 right, I determined, more wisely than heroically, to retire for assist- 

 ance, and I am here to-night in furtherance of that intention. 



Now let me begin by describing exactly my own experiences in 

 Greece. As everyone knows, the country consists principally of a 

 mass of mountains with small valleys between them here and there 

 and many straits and inlets of the sea. In fact, the configuration is 

 very like that of the Highlands of Scotland. The scenery does not 

 possess the great variety of color caused by the light and shade of 

 the humid atmosphere of the Highlands; it is brightly but uniforml}^ 

 colored. On the other hand, its comparative aridity is compensated 

 for by a singular beauty and variety of contour, which are not ex- 

 celled in the Alps or even in the Himalayas. High enough, to retain 

 for most of the months of the year an exquisite lacing of snow, the 

 mountains, though barren and stony, make a long vista of outlines 

 against the very lovely sky. I have never seen a sky equal to that of 

 Greece. In the Tropics a yellow light is reflected from the burning 

 ground upon the lower strata of the air, and only the zenith is blue; 

 but in Greece the azure extends almost down to the horizon, except 

 for a narrow margin of brilliant silvery or pearly light. After sun- 

 set the sky seemed to me to possess, not the deep night blue of the 

 Tropics, but a wonderful purple tint of its own, in which the " new- 

 bathed stars " shine with a brilliance not exceeded even in the desert. 

 At midday the almost tropical glare of the sun on the chalky soil is 

 relieved by the dark shades of the plane trees and the classical 

 cypresses and the bright green of the vines. It has been my fortune 

 to see many beautiful countries, but I think that Greece and Britain 

 hold the palm. 



The particular valley which I was called upon to visit was that of 

 Lake Kopais, in Boeotia. After leaving Athens, the comfortable 

 train winds along between Mount Pentelikon on the south and Mount 

 Parnes on the north. Then, passing across the eastern spurs of 

 Parnes, in full sight of the Island of Euboia and its strait on the 

 right, it enters the Valley of Thebes. Traversing this it goes through 

 the defile of the Sphingion (where the Sphinx used to waylay travel- 

 ers with her riddles) and emerges on the Kopaik Plain. This is a 

 large area about 6 miles broad and 12 miles long, the long axis point- 

 ing west and east. On the east the plain is bounded by the Mountain 

 of the Sphinx, which seems from certain points of view to have the 

 shape of a woman's figure reclined along its crest. Along the whole 

 of the south side runs the beautiful range of Helikon, the Mountain 

 of the Muses. .The birthplace of Hesiod is in one of its valleys ; and 

 near one of the summits there is the famous fountain of Hippokrene, 

 where the winged horse, Pegasus, took flight for heaven, owing, it is 

 said, to some annoyance from the literary critics of the day. At the 



