Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante, and a few smaller islands, form a crescent-shaped archipelago off the entrance to the Gulf of Patras. They are the summits of a half-submerged chain of calcareous mountains, alternately flooded by the rains or scorched by the sun. Their valleys, like those of Corfu, produce oranges, lemons, currants (“Corinthians”), wine, and oil, which form the objects of a brisk commerce. The inhabitants very much resemble those of Corfu, the Italian element being strongly represented, except on Ithaca. [Illustration: Fig. 26.—THE CHANNEL OF SANTA MAURA. From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 200,000.] Leucadia, or the “white island,” thus called because of its glittering chalk cliffs, is evidently a dependency of the continent. The ancients looked upon it as a peninsula converted into an island by Corinthian colonists, who cut a canal through the isthmus which joined it to the mainland; but this legend is not borne out by an examination of the locality. These Corinthians probably merely dug a navigable channel through the shallow lagoon which separates the island from the coast, and does not exceed eighteen inches in depth. In fact, if there were any tides in the Ionian Sea, the island of Leucadia would be converted twice daily into a peninsula. A bridge, of which there still exist considerable remains, formerly joined the island to the mainland near the southern extremity of the lagoon, whilst an island occupied by the citadel of Santa Maura—a name sometimes applied to the whole of the island—defended its entrance to the north. {78} Until recently this was the only spot in Western Greece where a grove of date-trees might be seen. A magnificent aqueduct of two hundred and sixty arches, which was also used as a viaduct, joined the citadel to Amaxiki, the chief town and harbour of Leucadia. This monument of Turkish enterprise—it was constructed in the reign of Bajazet—has sustained much injury from earthquakes. Amaxiki might be supposed to be haunted by fever, owing to the salt swamps and lagoons which surround it; but such is not the case: on the contrary, it is a comparatively healthy town, and its women are noted for freshness of complexion and beauty. To the south of it rise the wooded mountains which terminate in the promontory of Leucate (Dukato), opposite to Cephalonia. On the summit of this promontory stood a temple of Apollo, whence, at the annual festival of the god, a condemned criminal was hurled as an expiatory victim. It was celebrated, also, as the lover’s leap, whence lovers leaped into the sea to drown their passion.