66 PROSERPINA. 



and of their wolf and bear traditions ; (compare also 

 the strong impression on the Greek mind of the wild 

 leanness, nourished by snow, of the Boeotian Cithaeron, 

 — "Oh, thou lake-hollow, full of divine leaves, and 

 of wild creatures, nurse of the snow, darling of 

 Diana," (Phcenissae, 80 1). How wild the climate of 

 this pine region is, you may judge from the pieces 

 in the note below* out of Colonel Leake's diary in 



• March yd. — We now ascend the roots of the mountain called 

 Kastania, and begin to pass between it and the mountain of Alonis- 

 tena, which is on our right. The latter is much higher than Kastania, 

 and, like the other peaked summits of the Moenalian range, is covered 

 with firs, and deeply at present with snow. The snow lies also in 

 our pass. At a fountain in the road, the small village of Bazeniko 

 is half a mile on the right, standing at the foot of the Msenalian range, 

 and now covered with snow. 



Saeta is the most lofty of the range of mountains, which are in face 

 of Levidhi, to the northward and eastward ; they are all a part of the 

 chain which extends from Mount Khelmos, and connects that great 

 summit with Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon. Mount Saeta is 

 covered with firs. The mountain between the plain of Levidhi and 

 Alonistena, or, to speak by the ancient nomenclature, that part of the 

 Msenalian range which separates the Orchomenia from the valleys of 

 Helisson and Methydrium, is clothed also with large forests of the same 

 trees ; the road across this ridge from Levidhi to Alonistena is now 

 impracticable on account of the snow. 



I am detained all day at Levidhi by a heavy fall of snow, which 

 before the evening has covered the ground to half a foot in depth, 

 although the village is not much elevated above the plain, nor in a 

 more lofty situation than Tripolitza. 



March $lh. — Yesterday afternoon and during the night the snow fell 

 in such quantities as to cover all the plains and adjacent mountains ; 

 and the country exhibited this morning as fine a snow-scene as Norway 

 could supply. As the day advanced and the sun appeared, the snow 

 melted rapidly, but the sky was soon overcast again, and the snow 

 began to fall. 



