802 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



Methana. — The promontory of Methana, also called in antiq- 

 uity Methone, lying about 7.5 km. southwest of ^Egina, is almost 

 an island, being joined to the mainland by an isthmus barely 0.3 

 km. wide. Its otherwise almost circular outline is broken on the 

 northwest by the projection formed by the hill of the Panagia, 

 a mass of gray Cretaceous limestone, 210 metres high, and on 

 the south by a similar limestone mass, of which the isthmus is a 

 prolongation. Its shores, in general are rocky, though beaches 

 occur in places. The general appearance is extremely rugged 

 and forbidding, the rocky slopes coming down to the water's 

 edge at angles of 25 ° to 35 , and the whole promontory being a 

 confused agglomeration of bare peaks rising gradually but 

 irregularly to the not very prominent mass of Mt. Chelona in 

 the centre. This exterior impression is heightened on closer 

 examination, arable land being very scarce and the few and poor 

 inhabitants wringing a scanty subsistence out of the stony slopes. 



The chief harbor and village is on the southeast coast at 

 Vromo Limni (Stench Harbor), so called on account of the hot 

 sulphur springs (temperature 27 C), where there is a summer 

 bathing establishment- — -the only place where tolerable accom- 

 modations can be secured. Hot sulphur springs also exist on 

 the northeast coast near Agios Giorgios. Near the shore, on 

 the southwest, are the small walled acropolis and other scanty 

 remains of the ancient Greek capital of the district, which for the 

 sake of clearness will be referred to as Methone, its ancient name, 

 the modern village of Megalo Chorio (Large Village), being 

 perched on the mountain slopes above. The other villages are 

 merely clusters of wretched houses. 



Geologically the promontory is simpler than /Egina. The 

 Neogene limestone formation, including the flanking breccias, is 

 wanting, which may be partially explained by the fact that 

 Methana lies in an area of subsidence. Cold 1 has shown that 

 the east coast of the Peloponnesos from Cape Matapan to Her- 

 mione has subsided in historical times, and as my guide described 

 columns and ruins lying beneath the sea near Methone, it seems 



'Cold: Kiisten Veranderungen im Archipel. Miinchen, 1886, p. 14 and map. 



