478 PELOPONNESUS. 
CHAP, centrally with regard to the Sinus Argoticus, the 
. _ T _.' . eye surveys the Laconian and Argolic Promon- 
tories; and looks down upon Naup/ia, Tiryns, 
and all the south-western side of the Gulph, 
almost with the same facility as it regards the 
jicyonian streets of Arstos. We saw the Akuoman Lake 
Lake. 
in the last direction, now a weedy pool ': the 
natives of Argos relate of it, as did Pausanias V 
that nothing swims upon its waters. On this 
side of the Gulph we saw also the Plain of 
Lerna, once fabled to be infested with the 
Hydra; and, in the same direction, the road 
leading to Tripolizza, until it lost itself in the 
mountains ; following with our eyes great part 
of a journey we were desirous to accomplish 
more effectually. 
Hence we descended towards the sea ; and 
(1) There cannot, however, be much alteration in this piece of 
water since the time of Pausanias; who describes it as a pool, mea- 
suring in diameter only one third of a stadium (about seventy -three 
yards), and lying amongst grass and bulrushes. (VIA. Pausan. in 
Corinth, c. 31. p. 200. ed. Kuhnii.J As to its prodigious depth, it 
would be curious to ascertain what foundation there was for the 
account given of its fathomless nature, by the same author ; who 
relates that Nero could not reach the bottom with lead fastened to ropes 
many stadia in length. 
(2) The account given of it by Pausanias is, that it draws persons 
to the bottom who venture to swim upon its surface. The same sort 
of story is often related, by the common people in this country, of 
any deep water. 
