Hellas, the land of the Greeks, is about equal in size to half of Scotland or Ireland or to a third of England[15]. It is intersected by a network of continuous mountain ranges, which cannot be crossed without difficulty, and these ranges are almost everywhere so near together that it is impossible to travel more than twenty miles in any direction without crossing one of them. There are therefore no plains of any considerable extent, and the country is cut up into very numerous small areas, each enclosed, except towards the sea, within natural barriers which make egress and entrance alike difficult. These areas are of varying minuteness: by far the greater number of them measure only ten miles by ten, or twenty by five, but a few are of larger dimensions, and, in particular, Argolis contains about four hundred and fifty square miles, and is as large as Bedfordshire, Attica contains seven hundred and twenty, and just equals Berkshire, and Laconia, with about nine hundred, is of the same size as Warwickshire[16]. [15] In making this statement I have regarded Thessaly as not forming part of Hellas. Thessaly was completely cut off from the rest by two great ranges of mountains and was conquered before the beginning of Greek history by a people who were not truly Hellenic. [16] These areas of Argolis, Attica, Laconia are calculated from the maps in Smith's _Atlas_: the other areas referred to are taken from the _Statesman's Yearbook_, or the article _Graecia_ in Smith's _Dictionary of Geography_. If communication by land is difficult, by sea it is easy, and was easy even in the earliest times. Greece and its islands have as much sea-board as any equal area in Europe; most of the natural divisions of the country have their share of coast with sheltered beaches where the boats or small ships of ancient times could be drawn up in safety: the Mediterranean, though it is sometimes as dangerous as any sea, is often calm: and by the age of Homer it had come to be a great highway for war, piracy and commerce.