VALE OF TEMPE. 165 



remained many days there, if it were only to 

 ramble through its romantic scenery and pictu- 

 resque groves. 



The vale itself is a chasm between Mounts 

 Olympus and Ossa, through which the Peneus, 

 or Selembria, finds its way to the sea. After 

 leaving Larissa, the road towards Tempe lies for 

 some distance across the plain, until, arriving at 

 the mountains, which seem to join each other and 

 prohibit all egress in that quarter, the traveller 

 begins to wonder how a passage can possibly 

 exist through a chain apparently so impassable. 



The plain then begins to grow perceptibly nar- 

 rower, and at last, when the traveller finds himself 

 on the banks of the Peneus, which rushes through 

 the vale with considerable rapidity, and sees the 

 high craggy and precipitous sides of Olympus 

 and Ossa overhanging it, and the rugged path on 

 which he is riding, Larissa is nearly three hours 

 behind him. 



Once in the vale itself, the traveller sees no 

 more the summit of either mountain. The sides 

 of the chasm are so abrupt and precipitous, 

 that only its high and craggy cliffs, through 

 which the Peneus forces its way, are visible 



