346 REMARKS ON PARTS OF GREECE. 



are not to be traced. Immediately above Delphi is another road 

 into the plain of the Cephissus, over the highest part of the moun- 

 tain, near which must have been Tithorea, and towards the descent 

 into the plain Ledon and Charadra. From the parched plains in the 

 summer months, the shepherds migrate with their flocks to the 

 cooler regions of Parnassus, where a rich pasture, with springs of 

 water abounds. The road from Delphi occasionally traverses small 

 cultivated plains enclosed with rocky heights ; sometimes detached, 

 and continually scattered over with pine trees, affording a wild and 

 horrid, though imposing aspect. From the western point of the 

 plain of the Cephissus, nearer to Mount (Eta, is a passage by way 

 of Salona, the ancient Amphissa, into the plain of Crissa, and to 

 Delphi. At the entrance of the mountain is a modern Khan, near 

 which are the remains of a fortress, placed on an almost inaccessible 

 rock. The descent into the plain of Salona is along a winding, arti- 

 ficial road, formed with masonry, on the steep side of a mountain ; 

 from this town, the plain of the Cephissus is about three hours 

 distant ; it connects with that of Chaeronea. 



ISTHMUS OF CORINTH. 



From Greece into Peloponnesus there are two roads ; the one from 

 Megara along a narrow cornice on the Saronic gulf, artificially formed 

 in the rocks, which rise perpendicularly from the sea. The ordinary 

 route from Bceotia and Attica into the Peloponnesus was over the 

 summits of the mountain Gerania, which forms the first barrier of 

 the isthmus towards Greece. You enter into a narrow gorge, near 

 which is a Dervent, or Turkish guard-house ; afterwards a good 

 gravelly road along the slope of a mountain leads to irregular heights, 

 covered with pines and brush-wood ; hence the descent is gradual to 

 the low, but rocky, uneven ground of the isthmus ; about three miles 

 before we arrive at Corinth may be traced the vestiges of a very 

 ancient wall, which was built for the defence of the Peloponnesus ; 

 this is in the most narrow part of the isthmus ; where it is four short 



