48 MARATHON TO THEBES. 
CHAP. :il)oat them wore an appearance of industry 
_. and cleanliness. Magi is only half an hour's 
distance from Capandritii. Leaving this village, 
we saw in a plain close to the road a marble 
Soros, v/ithout its operculum, sunk into the earth, 
and almost buried. In a short time we entered 
a deiile between mountains ; and rode, for two 
hours, along a pass which may be described 
as truly ^"//pine ; the scenery being extremely 
sublime, and the mountains very high, and 
disposed into masses of great grandeur. This 
pass is very narrow; and it continues by the 
side of a deep water-course, perhaps enumerated 
among the rivers of Greece, but, like many of 
them, occasionally dry, and it was now without 
water. Hence we descended into the spacious 
riim of plain which w^e had seen at such a distance from 
the heights of Fames, and which we have every 
reason to consider as the land of Tanagr- ; a 
plain of such extraordinary beauty, extent, and 
fertility, that the sight of it alone is sufficient to 
explain all that antient authors have written con- 
cerning the contests maintained for its posses- 
sion, between the inhabitants of Atiica and of 
Bceotia. In a former note, the author has com- 
pared it to the rich plain of Umhria, near Terni 
in Iiahj; which it resembles, by its highly diver- 
sified aspect of cultivation and wildness ; of 
