character of this inland tract is also increased by the circumstance of its being intersected by some lower secondary chains of hills, which compel the waters of the valleys nearest to the great chains either to form lakes, or to seek a vent by subterraneous passages.(252) Hence it is that in the mountainous district in the north-east of Peloponnesus many streams disappear, and again emerge from the earth. This region is ARCADIA; a country consisting of ridges of hills and elevated plains, and of deep and narrow valleys, with streams flowing through channels formed by precipitous rocks; a country so manifestly separated by nature from the rest of Peloponnesus, that, although not politically united, it was always considered in the light of a single community. Its climate was extremely cold; the atmosphere dense, particularly in the mountains to the north:(253) the effect which this had on the character and dispositions of the inhabitants has been described in a masterly manner by Polybius, himself a native of Arcadia. 3. LACONIA is formed by two mountain-chains running immediately from Arcadia, and enclosing the river Eurotas, whose source is separated from that of an Arcadian stream by a very trifling elevation. The Eurotas is, for some way below the city of Sparta, a rapid mountain-stream; then, after forming a cascade, it stagnates into a morass; but lower down it passes over a firm soil in a gentle and direct course.(254) Near the town of Sparta rocks and hills approach the banks on both sides, and almost entirely shut in the river both above and below the town:(255) this enclosed plain is without doubt the “_hollow_ Lacedæmon” of Homer.(256) Here the narrowness of the valley, and the heights of Taygetus, projecting above in a lofty parapet, increase the heat of summer, both by concentrating the sun-beams, as it were, into a focus, and by presenting a barrier to the cool sea-breezes;(257) whilst in winter the cold is doubly violent. The same natural circumstances produce violent storms of rain, and the numerous mountain-torrents frequently cause inundations in the narrow valleys.(258) The mountains, although running in connected chains, are yet very much interrupted; their broken and rugged forms were by the ancients attributed to earthquakes;(259) one of which caused so great consternation at Sparta a short time before the war with the Helots. The country is not however destitute of plains; that indeed along the lower part of the Eurotas is one of the finest in Greece, stretching towards the south, and protected by mountains from the north wind: moreover, the maritime district, surrounded by rocks, from Malea to Epidaurus Limera (Malvasia), is extremely fertile.(260) Nor are the valleys on the frontiers of Messenia less productive; towards the promontory of Tænarum however the soil continually becomes harder, drier, and more ferruginous. The error of supposing that this country was nearly a desert appears from