366 DEFILE OF TEMPE. 
CHAP, their being enabled to undersell every other competitof 
^ ^-' i _i upon the Continent, would ultimately prove the ruin 
of their establishment. This no doubt is owing 
to the improvement adopted in Greo:t Britain of 
spinning cotton- thread in mills, by means of 
engines that are worked by steam, which has 
caused such a considerable reduction in its 
price; — all the thread made at Ampelalna being 
spun by manual labour. The beautiful red 
tincture of the Turkish cotton will, however, 
long maintain its pristine celebrity : it has 
never been perfectly imitated in England. The 
English cotton-thread is much finer, but it has 
not the tenacity of that which is manufactured 
in Turkey ; neither is its colour so durable. 
The whole population of Ampelakia, amounting 
to four thousand souls, including even the child- 
ren, is occupied in the preparation of this 
single article of commerce ; the males in dyeing 
the wool, and the females in spinning the thread. 
A delightful picture of industry is thereby 
exhibited ; and the happy effects of active 
employment, in a land otherwise oppressed by 
a general stagnation of its energies, is re- 
markably conspicuous, in the health, in the 
cheerfulness, and in the good feeling to which 
Manner of industry always conduces. Spindles only are 
threadf ^ used in making the thread : there is not a 
