Note 337 — Chapter I · GENERAL GEOGRAPHY AND LIMITS OF GREECE.

Dr. Clarke’s description deserves to be noticed, though his warm eulogies on the fertility of the soil, taken generally, are not borne out by later observers: “The physical phenomena of Greece, differing from those of any other country, present a series of beautiful plains, successively surrounded by mountains of limestone; resembling, although upon a larger scale, and rarely accompanied by volcanic products, the craters of the Phlegræan fields. Everywhere, their level surfaces seems to have been deposited by water, gradually retired or evaporated; they consist for the most part of the richest soil, and their produce is yet proverbially abundant. In this manner, stood the cities of Argos, Sikyon, Corinth, Megara, Eleusis, Athens, Thebes, Amphissa, Orchomenus, Chæronea, Lebadea, Larissa, Pella, and many others.” (Dr. Clarke’s Travels, vol. ii. ch. 4, p. 74.)