MARITIME CANALS IN GREECE. 589 



choked as to be no longer navigable, it was probably filled up to 

 facilitate communication by land between the promontory and 

 the country in the rear of it. 



The emjDeror Nero commenced the construction of a canal 

 across the Isthmus of Corinth, solely to facihtate the importation 

 of grain from the East for distribution among the citizens of Rome 

 — for the encouragement of general commerce was no part of the 

 policy either of the republic or the empire, and though the 

 avidity of traders, chiefly foreigners, secured to the luxury of the 

 imperial city an abundant supply of far-fetched wares, yet Rome 

 had nothing to export in return. The hne of Nero's excavations 

 is still traceable for three-quarters of a mile, or more than a fifth 

 of the total distance between gulf and guK . 



If the fancy kingdom of Greece shaU ever become a sober re- 

 ahty, escape from its tutelage and acquire such a moral as well as 

 political status that its own capitahsts — ^who now prefer to estab- 

 lish themselves and employ their funds anywhere else rather than 

 in their native land — ^have any confidence in the permanency of 

 its institutions, a navigable channel may be opened between 

 the gulfs of Lepanto and ^gina. The annexation of the 

 Ionian Islands to Greece will make such a work almost a political 

 necessity, and it would not only furnish valuable facilities for do- 

 mestic intercourse, but become an important channel of communi- 

 cation between the Levant and the countries bordering on the 

 Adriatic, and of conducting their trade through that sea. 



Short as is the distance, the work would be a somewhat formid- 

 able undertaking, for the lowest point of the summit ridge of the 

 isthmus is stated to be 246 feet above the water, and consequently 

 the depth of excavation must be not less than 275 feet.* 



As I have said, the importance of this latter canal and of a 

 navigable channel between Mount Athos and the continent would 

 be chiefly commercial, but both of them would be conspicuous 

 instances of the control of man over nature in a field where he has 

 thus far done little to interfere with her spontaneous arrange- 

 ments. If they were constructed upon such a scale as to admit 



* Recent journals (May, 1882) announce the completion of arrangements for 

 the construction of this canal, and work is stated to have actually commenced 

 upon it 



