148 Even the new railway has not altered this. The journey up and down the bay in a coasting steamer is still well worth undertaking. 149 M. Viollet-le-duc, in his _Entretiens sur l’Architecture_, vol. i. p. 45, explains the reason of this. Apart from the greater facility of raising smaller blocks, most limestones are subject to flaws, which are disclosed only by strain. Hence it was much safer to support the entablature on two separate beams, one of which might sustain, at least temporarily, the building, in case the other should crack. 150 Cf. pp. 370 and 433. 151 Strabo, who had apparently travelled but little through Greece, speaks with admiration of this view, which he had evidently seen. The fortress of Karytena is some twenty or thirty feet higher in situation and far more picturesque from below, but is too much surrounded by other high mountains to admit of a prospect like that from the Acro-Corinthus. 152 See also _Guide Joanne_, ii. p. 197. 153 This is just what Strabo says (viii. 6, § 21): _ἔκρυσιν μὲν οὐκ ἔχουσαν μεστὴν δ’ ἀεὶ διαυγοῦς καὶ ποτίμου ὕδατος_, and Corinth was one of the few Greek places he visited. 154 So also learned men speak about the amphitheatre. Herzberg (ii. 253) says: “Seine Ruine steht noch heute.” Cf. also Friedländer, ii. 383, but I could not find it. 155 Part ii. p. 198, _sq._ (1891). 156 The reader who performs this journey by train may consider whether what here follows is not an older and better way. _ 157 πολλὸς δὲ καὶ ὡς ῥόδα κίσθος ἐπανθεῖ_.—THEOCR. v. 131. 158 There is a tract of sea-coast on the east side of Italy, about halfway between Ancona and Monte Gargano, which has this Theocritean character to perfection. Even the railway passenger can appreciate the curious contrast it affords to the splendid orchards and gardens about Bari, which are still farther south. _ 159 οὐ θέμις, ὦ ποιμήν, τὸ μεσημβρινόν, οὐ θέμις ἆμμιν_ _συρίσδεν. τὸν Πᾶνα δεδοίκαμες· ἦ γὰρ ἀπ’ ἄγρας_ _τανίκα κεκμηὼς ἀμπαύεται, ἐστι γὰρ πικρός,_ _καὶ οἱ ἀεὶ ὁριμεῖα χολὰ ποτὶ ῥινὶ κάθηται._—THEOCR. i. 15. _ 160 τοὺς μὴν ὄγε λάεσσιν ἀπὸ χθονὸς ὅσσον ἀείρων_ _γευγέμην ἄψ ὀπίσω δειδίσσετο, τρηχὺ δὲ φωνῇ_ _ἠπείλει μάλα πᾶσιν, ἐρητύσασκε δ’ ὑλαγμοῦ,_ _χαίρων ἐν φρησὶν ᾖσιν, ὁθούνεκεν αὔλιν ἔρυντο._ THEOCR. xxv. 73, and cf. _Odyss._ xiv. 29 _sq._