252 Notices of Ancient and Modern Greece. 



commencement of the attempted canal ; it must have been of great 

 width and depth, for it is still lower than the surface of the Gulf of 

 Corinth, and you walk up in its bed for a mile, between two vast 

 ridges, formed by earth and stones, thrown up on each side; then you 

 arrive at a narrow cut through the rocks, where the marks of the 

 chisel are still visible, and a flight of steps also cut in the rock, is very 

 perfect : a litde farther, after passing other similar cuttings, you lose 

 all traces of the canal, and the dry sandy soil seems to have presented 

 a still greater obstacle. I may observe here, that the Isthmus is 

 traversed, lengthwise, by a ledge of heavy pumice stone, which is 

 visible in the center from the excavations made by the ancients to 

 procure stone for their buildings ; this ledge which is highest in the 

 center of the Isthmus, is in some parts above the surface, and appears 

 to sink away on each side to a far greater depth than the surface of 

 the sea. It is a common idea, that the ancients were deterred from 

 pursuing their undertaking, by the fear, that an inundation of the isl- 

 ands of the Egean would take place from the rush of the waters from 

 the Corinthian Gulf, which were, and are vulgarly supposed to be 

 many feet higher than the contiguous sea : it is difficult however to 

 suppose, that men, advanced as they must have been in mechanical 

 acquirements, should have been deficient in the means of deciding 

 this question in hydraulics ', although any person standing on the cen- 

 tre of the Isthmus, and judging simply from sight, would pronounce 

 the waters of the Corinthian Gulf to be much higher than those of the 

 Egean ; the fact is accounted for however, by the nature of the slope, 

 that toward the Corinthian side being gentle, while on the other it is 

 abrupt. 



The question, of the practicability of cutting the Isthmus by a ca- 

 nal, is decided in the affirmative ; but another question remains to be 

 settled, that is, how much commerce must augment here before it 

 would be a profitable undertaking ; this has been much discussed; 

 but I have not yet seen noticed one objection that would be of con- 

 siderable force, viz. the prevalence of westerly winds in the Corinth- 

 ian Gulf, which is so great, that getting out is difficult ; I venture to 

 say, that more than eight tenths of the time, that the wind blows 

 over the gulf, it is from the west. 



In every part of the Isthmus you meet with some remnants of the 

 works of the ancients ; the stupendous wall which they constructed 

 across it, although now a heap of ruins, still, by its extent and the 

 immense mass of wrought stones, gives evidence of the enterprize 



