CORYCIAN CAVE. 



313 



eastern part of Europe, took an easterly direction, and followed 

 the coasts of the Euxine or the line of Caucasus, into Persia and 

 Asia Minor. The army of Xerxes was the only foreign force 

 which ever came with the irresistible weight of an emigration, or 

 led them to doubt of their ability to cope with their enemy in 

 the field. 



Had these inroads occurred more frequently, the Phocians would 

 have learned the value of their natural citadel more fully. In Syria 

 and Judea, the wretched inhabitants became familiarized with such 

 retreats, during the repeated invasions of the Assyrian kings. Je- 

 remiah, in the translation of the Septuagint, expresses this dreadful 

 necessity with great force, iv. 29., «Vo ipmvqg l-mrtug, ka) IvTiTocf/ivou 



TO^OV CCViy^U^TlVZ 7T0i(TC6 7j %Wp«, £lCr£OV<TOlV Ztg TOi 0"7T Jj[A«<fi'j OC,V£pV}(TOtV Big Tag 



TTErpa.;, Tvccaa. iroktg xc&TeXsifpdy;. 



The view to -the southward from this spot was extensive and 

 very striking : the mountain Cirphis on the other side of the valley 

 of Aracova terminated in aflat table land like the recess in Parnassus, 

 well cultivated, and studded with villages ; but the greater height of 

 both these plains raised them above the regions of spring, which we 

 had left below ; vegetation had not yet begun to appear, and the 

 snow lay in patches over both of them. Beyond, the mountains of 

 the Morea filled up the distance. 



We rode across the plain towards the north, and leaving our 

 horses at the foot of the ascent which bounded it, climbed up a 

 steep and bushy slope to the mouth of the Corycian cave. I had 

 been so repeatedly disappointed with scenes of this kind, they had so 

 generally appeared inferior to the descriptions given of them, that I 

 expected to meet with the same reverse here, and to find nothing 

 but a dark narrow vault. I was, however, to be for once agreeably 

 surprised ; the narrow and low entrance of the cave, spread at once 

 into a chamber 330 feet long, by nearly 200 wide ; the Stalactites 

 from the top hung in the most graceful forms, the whole length 

 of the roof, and fell, like drapery, down the sides. The depth of the 



folds was so vast and the masses thus suspended in the air were so 



s s 



