Nienhoff in Churchill’s Collection, ii. 264. Barbot. iii. 13. Ulloa, Memoires Philosophiques, t. ii. p. 15. Voyages, t. i. p. 487, 491. ----- The opinions of Grecian writers respecting the soil best suited to the cultivation of the vine, having been founded on experience, generally agree with those which prevail in modern times.[1495] They preferred for their vineyards the gentle acclivities of hills,[1496] where the soil was good, though light and porous, and abounding in springs at no great depth from the surface.[1497] A considerable degree of moisture was always supposed to be indispensable, on which account, in arid situations, large hollow sea-shells, and fragments of sandstone[1498] were buried in the soil, these being regarded as so many reservoirs of humidity. ----- Footnote 1495: Virg. Georg. ii. 276. Footnote 1496: “Quòd colles Bacchus amaret.” Manil. Astronom. ii. p. 31. 6. Scalig. Footnote 1497: Geop. v. 1. Footnote 1498: Geop. v. 9. 8. Virg. Georg. ii. 348. ----- By some the vine was even thought to delight in the rich alluvial soil of plains, such as is found in Egypt,[1499] where, in later times, the banks of the Nile, from Elephantinè to the sea, seem to have presented one vast succession of vineyards.[1500] But superior vines were produced on a few spots only, as at Koptos, and in the neighbourhood of Lake Mareotis, where showers of sand, pouring in from the desert or the sea-shore, diminished the fatness of the ground. With respect to Koptos, we possess, however, no precise information,[1501] but are expressly told, that the Mareotic vineyards covered a series of sandy swells, stretching eastward from the lake towards Rosetta.[1502] On the southern confines of Egypt, in the rocky and picturesque island of Elephantinè, the vine was said[1503] never to shed its leaves; but as none grow there at present, the traveller has no opportunity of deciding this question. In Greece the vineyards of the plains were generally appropriated to the production of the green grape, the purple being supposed to prefer the sides of hills, or even of mountains, provided it were not exposed to the furious winds upon their summits. Several sorts of white grape, also, as the Psillian, Corcyrean, and the Chlorian, delighted in elevated vineyards,[1504] though it was often judged necessary to reverse these rules, and compel the hill-nurslings to descend to the plains, while those of the plains were in their turn exposed to the climate of the mountains. ----- Footnote 1499: Καλλίστη δὲ γῆ καὶ ἑ ὑπὸ τῶν ῥεόντων ποταμῶν χωσθεῖσα, ὅθεν καὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον ἐπαινοῦμεν.—Florent. ap. Geop. v. 1. 4. Footnote 1500: