300 



GREECE. 



hardly inferior in size to those at the Dardanelles, projects from a 

 sort of gateway, not much above the level of the water, and 

 threatens destruction to all shipping which should approach from the 

 southward. 



The next morning I rode beyond the suburb into Eubcea, to visit a 

 place which had been described to me as a subterraneous church. I 

 descended into it by a hollow passage, wet, and not more than three 

 feet high, which terminated in one of those conical cisterns or maga- 

 zines which are to be seen on the rock of the Pireeus and on the hill 

 above Eleusis. The sides of this were covered with some coarse 

 sculpture, and it had probably been used as a chapel or place of devo- 

 tion under the Greek empire, and at times when concealment in wor- 

 ship was necessary. From this spot I rode down to the sea, which, 

 at the distance of two miles from the city on the south side meets the 

 mountains. The limestone rock, here, as at Athens, was shaped into 

 the foundations of houses or tombs, and a long inscription of late 

 date, and apparently relating to some private person, is partly legible, 

 though much effaced by the corrosion of the sea-spray. Luxuriant 

 springs of fresh water were bursting from the rock and falling into 

 the sea. 



Returning through the town, we again crossed the Euripus by the 

 bridge. The channel cannot be more than forty or fifty yards wide, 

 and the passage for the water is still further narrowed by the massy 

 piers of the bridge. The current was at this moment falling with 

 nearly as much rapidity as the tide at London-bridge, in an opposite 

 direction to that of the evening preceding. I was assured by 

 the people of the place that the tide * changed every six hours, in 

 case no high winds interfered with the regular course of the waters. 



* " Pliny, lib. ii., speaks with much clearness on the subject of tides in general, artd par- 

 ticularly of those in the Mediterranean. The tides, he says, in the mouth of the straits of 

 Messina and in the Euripus return at stated intervals, although the intervals may be differ- 

 ent from those in the ocean or in other parts of the Mediterranean. Modern observations 

 point out a rise of about five feet at Venice, but only twelve or thirteen inches at Naples 

 and the Euripus." — RennelPs Herodotus, 659. 



