BCEOTIAN CATABOTHRA. 305 



passage endangered the safety of the tract of country, which was 

 situated a httle above its usual level. At the time when the under- 

 taking for clearing the zara.GJSpa! was proposed, the rich and 

 flourishing towns of the plain were reduced to a state of desolation 

 by the incroachments of the lake, and under the despondency 

 occasioned by an universal monarchy sunk into complete decay. At 

 present the rising of the waters in winter has turned a great portion 

 of the richest soil in the world into a morass, and should any 

 permanent internal obstruction occur in the stream, the whole of 

 this fertile plain might gradually become included in the limits of the 

 Copaic lake. 



A fishery for eels is carried on at the Catavothra, and they are 

 salted and sold all over Greece. They have continued to retain their 

 celebrity from very early times ; and are praised by Dorion, Aga- 

 tharcides, Eubulus (apud Athenceum), and Aristophanes * ; and the 

 Byzantine writers occasionally refer to them. (Niceph. Greg. lib. ix.) 



ON THE BCEOTIAN CATABOTHRA AND COPAIC LAKE. 



[BY THE EDITOR.] i 



These great artificial excavations were probably formed by the wealthy 

 Orchomenians, in very early ages, to protect the plain belonging to 

 their state from inundation. The people who erected the Treasury, 

 as it is called, of Orchomenus, wanted neither skill nor power to exca- 



• From the Boeotian lakes the Athenian market was supplied with various articles, 

 which were not abundant in Attica. " The Boeotians (Irene, 1003.), sold the Athenians 

 water fowl and wild fowl, manufactures of rush work, as mats and wicks for lamps, and 

 fish from the lakes. — Gray on Aristoph. 



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