LARISSA. 345 
higher arches'^. We found many fragments of chap. 
the Verde-antico marble used even for the com- ■■ 
mon purposes of pavmg : perhaps this may be 
accounted for by a circumstance that will be 
related in the sequel ; the discovery of a sub- 
stance very similar to this breccia, in the neigh- 
bourhood, lying in its natural state. Some 
priests applied to us for a charitable donation 
for their monastery, pretending to be very poor : 
this practice is common in Turkey, wherever 
(2) " The river Peneus ruus on the west aud north of this town, and 
is crossed by a stone bridge of many arches. Procopius says, 'This 
river which washes the town is borne on with a gentle current to the 
sea,' iZ ftaXa tr^afmas •• De ^dif. lib. iv. The same author describes the 
country in the vicinity as extremely fertile and well-watered. Indeed, 
no plain in Greece can be more productive than that of Larissa, par- 
ticularly in corn and cotton : it is still the ' Larissa ...campiis opimtE,' 
Hot, In its greatest length, it is twenty miles. The market of 
JLarissa is well supplied with all kinds of provision ; particularly with 
excellent fish caught in the Peneus. The circuit of the town is from 
three to four miles: the inhabitants are, iu number, about 14,000 
Turkish families, 1600 Greek; and there are 2000 Jews. The Greek 
at whose house I lodged, complained of the unhealthy air of the place. 
From the window of my room I looked over the river, and part of the 
plain, backed by the snow-covered summits of Olympus, which, ex- 
tending in a great length of line from east to west, brought to mind 
the exact meaning of the fiax^os "Okv/i^o; of Homer. The height of this 
mountain has been given at 800 toises. I find in Plutarch, that 
Xenagoras measured it accurately with instruments (J/ o^yavav), and 
found the perpendicular height to be more than ten furlongs (irjoj rhr 
tcihrot). See the Life of Paitlus ^■Emilius. The height of Pelion, 
Pliny informs us, was also taken by Diceearchus, by order of the 
Ptolemies, and was found to be ' nccl passuam ratione peipcndiculi.' " 
TValpole's MS. Journal. 
