The history of the PENEUS is that of THESSALY. Its origin on the summit of Mount Pindus speaks of the rocky bulwark by which that country

is fenced from the western half of Greece: its slow and winding course, after its descent from that mountain, tells of the level and extensive plain of which Thessaly is formed. Again, that vast area of flat soil reminds the spectator of the results which this peculiar physical structure naturally produced, especially if it is considered in contrast with the rugged surface of the rest of the continent of Greece. It calls to his recollection the historical facts, that Thessaly was a land of corn-fields, of flocks and herds, of horses and of battles.

Of its fertility, the name of CRANNON, which is not far from the river's bank, with its records of the rich court of the Scopada, the friends of Simonides, and of their oxen, which, as the Sicilian poet says, lowed as they went to their stalls, and the ten thousand sheep which were driven under the shade, along its plain, will afford sufficient evidence; and the appearance of the Centaurs in the fields of Thessaly, and their mythological appropriation to this country above all others, would be an adequate proof of its equestrian superiority to the rest of Greece, if others of a more recent date were not supplied by the conquests achieved in international

warfare by the cavalry of Thessaly; and, lastly, the tributary streams which flow into the Peneus, bring with them thither the names of cities by which they flow, and beneath the walls of which those warlike feats were done, which gained for the Thessalian plain the name of the Orchestra of Mars. Thus, for instance, the APIDANUS bears along with it into the river of which we speak, the fame of PHARSALIA, which it laves; and the ONOCHONUS contributes to the same channel the names, scarcely less memorable in the history of war, of SCOTUSSE and CYNOSCEPHALE.

The entrance of the Peneus into the narrow defile of Tempe, between the mountains of Olympus and Ossa, a few miles before its entrance into the sea, suggested to Xerxes the reflection that Thessaly might easily be flooded by damming up this only outlet of the stream; and the opinion that Thessaly was actually covered by the sea in more ancient times, appears not only probable in itself, from a consideration of its physical form (and, it may be suggested, from its very name), but is confirmed by the ancient traditions, which have assumed the form of mythological legends, with respect to that country. NEPTUNE, in these accounts, strikes the rock with his trident, and opens a passage for the imprisoned water by the fissure, which received, from this circumstance, the name of TEMPE, or THE CUT. The war of the GIANTS with the Gods, and the uprooting, by their hands, of one of the mountains which flank the aperture in question, and its super-position on the other, refer to a similar convulsion; and the celebration of the nuptials, on a third and neighbouring mountain (PELION, which was also upheaved by the belligerents' force), of the hero

of the land, PELEUS, with the goddess of the sea, THETIS, seems to refer to the calm and peace of nature, and the reconciliation of the elements which ensued, when the tumult of their physical rebellion had subsided.

We have reserved, for our final excursion from the central eminence of ZYGO, the course of the stream, which, even in the strains of the Italian muse, was celebrated as the first-born of all the rivers which flowed from

the recesses of the earth. That the ACHELOUS should have been generally considered, in Greece, as the symbol and synonyme of water, is probably to be ascribed to its superiority in magnitude to the other streams of the Greek Continent; and to all visitors from the western world it was a more remarkable object than any other of these, not merely from its size, but because it came under their notice in their passage either up the Gulf of Corinth, or in their course to the southward, round the Peloponnesian Peninsula. In tracing its progress from its source, we are led through a rude, mountainous, and thinly-peopled country, the fastnesses of which have never been cleared of robbers, from the earliest times to the present, till we come, after a course of one hundred and thirty miles, to its union with the ocean, at the point where the Ionian Sea may be said to end, and the Gulf of Corinth to begin.

Quitting our station at Zygo, near Metzovo, on Mount Pindus, but still remaining upon the same ridge of mountains, we pursue our course southward, following the line which is made by the successive links of this long and continuous chain.

We proceed in this direction for a distance of sixty miles. Here we arrive at an eminence formerly called Mount TYMPHRESTUS, but now termed Beluchi. As Mount Zygo is the central point from which the rivers of Continental Greece take their origin, and thence diverge towards all the shores by which

MOUNT TYMPHRESTUS.

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that country is bounded, so may Mount Tymphrestus be regarded as the centre from which its mountains radiate in the same manner.

From the north, the range of Pindus descends to this point; on the east, the ridge of Othrys branches from it to the sea; the Etæan chain stretches to the south-east, towards the same coast; to the west it extends itself, from this central spot, along the northern frontier of ATOLIA and ACARNANIA, under the name of the AGREAN Hills, until it arrives at the shore of the Ambracian Gulf; southward, is the continuation of Mount Pindus, which, shortly after it has passed by this point, changes both its name and direction.

Diverging gradually to the south-east, it assumes different titles as it goes. through the various stages of its course, and forms the barrier which separates one valley or province from another. Thus, it divides the southern half of PHOCIS from the vale of the CEPHISSUS, and is then called PARNASSUS; in

BEOTIA, it becomes HELICON; at CITHERON and PARNES, it severs the Boeotian vale of the AsOPUS from the plain of ATTICA; thence, pursuing its course southward, it bisects the Attic Peninsula; and having raised its head in divers summits, and borne the illustrious names of BRILESSUS, PENTELICUS, and HYMETTUS, it gently subsides into the lower declivities of Mount LAUREIUM, and sinks into the sea at the peak of SUNIUM.

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TRACHINIAN PROVINCE,

Here it does not terminate. It may be supposed to show itself again in the rugged and lofty crags of the island chain which hangs from this promontory. It may be recognized in the cliffs of CEOs, and in the citadel of THERMIA. We may trace it to the white quarries of PAROS, in the CYNTHIAN hill of DELOS, and in

the crystal grotto of ANTIPAROS. We may pursue its course to the TRIOPIAN promontory in CNIDOS, and the PANIONIAN hill at EPHESUS, by means of the rocky group of the CYCLADES and SPORADES of the EGEAN Sea, which serve as natural steppingstones to conduct us across the Archipelago, to the continent of Asia from that of Greece.

Having indulged in this rapid excursion, we now return to a closer and more minute contemplation of those objects which deserve our attention at the point which we have chosen for our present position. In one of the glens of TYMPHRESTUS rises the river SPERCHEIUS. The beautiful valley through which it flows, is formed by the nearly parallel ranges of Othrys and Eta, branching from Mount Tymphrestus, and stretching eastward to the MALIAN Gulf. The length of this valley is sixty miles: it is famed for the richness of its soil, the luxuriance of its pastures, and the variety and beauty of its woods and groves. To the deity of this river, the most beautiful and most honoured of all the streams which watered his native soil, Achilles, when at Troy, vowed that he would pay, if he lived to revisit its banks, an offering of his hair, which, when he despaired of doing so, he placed in the hand of his dear friend

GROTTO OF ANTIPAROS.