is the barren and rocky islet of Anti- | mos), and is situated opposite the paro, uninhabited except by a few coast of Acarnania and the entrance shepherds and fishermen, but resorted to the Corinthian Gulf. Along the to by sportsmen in the season for shoot-northern half of the eastern shore of ing quails, which sometimes alight Cephalonia lies Ithaca, separated from here in almost incredible numbers. it by a channel averaging less than five miles across; while the distance from the most southernly point in Cephalonia to the northernmost part of Zante is about 8 m. The size of this island has been variously stated by the ancient writers. Strabo (x. 2) asserts that it is 300 stadia, and Pliny (iv. 12, ed. Sillig) that it is 93 m. in circuit; but both these measurements are short of the real circumference, which is little less than 120 m. greatest length of the island is 31 English miles; its breadth is very unequal.

The island of Paxo has been made an object of much interest by a legend recorded in Plutarch's 'Defect of Oracles,' and so well told in the words of the old annotator on Spenser's 'Pastoral in May'-"Here, about the time that our Lord suffered his most bitter passion, certain persons sailing from Italy to Cyprus at night heard a voice calling aloud, Thamus! Thamus! who, giving ear to the cry was bidden (for he was pilot of the ship), when he came near to Pelodes" (the Bay of Butrinto)" to tell that the great god Pan was dead, which he doubting to do, yet for that when he came to Pelodes there was such a calm of wind that the ship stood still in the sea unmoored, he was forced to cry aloud that Pan was dead; wherewithal there were such piteous outcries and dreadful shrieking as hath not been the like. By which Pan, of some is understood the great Sathanas, whose kingdom was at that time by Christ conquered, and the gates of hell broken up; for at that time all oracles surceased, and enchanted spirits that were wont to delude the people henceforth held their peace."

The words in which Milton alludes to this legend in his Ode on the Nativity

"The lonely mountains o'er, And the resounding shore,

The

Cephalonia is called in Homer Same or Samos; which, perhaps, is putting the name of the then largest and most populous of its cities for the whole island; since the poet elsewhere uses the term Cephallenians (Kepaλλñves) for the inhabitants, whom he describes as the subjects of Ulysses (Il., ii. 631 ; Od., iv. 671, &c.). They were probably of the same race with the Taphians who peopled the neighbouring islands, and they were fabled to have derived their appellation from Cephalus, who made himself master of the country by the help of Amphitryon. Cephallenia, as the name of the island, first occurs in Herodotus (ix. 28); in Italian, it is called Cefalonia; the English Cephalonia seems to be formed from the French Céphalonie.

The Cephallenians are not recorded

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; to have taken any part in the Persian From haunted spring and dale,

Edged with poplar pale,

The parting Genius is with sighing sent "—

will recur to the memory of the English traveller as he sails-particularly if it be in the darkness of the night -by the island of Paxo.

3. CEPHALONIA (CEPHALLENIA). This is the largest island in the Ionian Sea, it is divided for electoral purposes into twelve districts (De

war, with the exception of the inhabitants of Pale, 200 of whose citizens fought on the national side at Plata (Herod., ix. 28). At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war a large Athenian fleet visited the island, which joined the Athenian alliance without offering any resistance (Thucyd., ii. 30). In the Roman wars in Greece Cephallenia opposed the Romans, but was reduced B.C. 189. Strabo informs us that C. Antonius possessed the whole island as his private estate. It was afterwards

given by Hadrian to the Athenians; | fied enclosures was to provide a reand then was subject to the Byzantine fuge in periods of danger for the empire until the twelfth century, when inhabitants of a whole district, along it passed into the hands of various with their cattle and property. Latin princes, and finally under the rule of Venice. It was captured from the French by the English expedition of 1809; since which period it has followed the fortunes of its neighbours.

The Bay of Samos abounds in a commenced building while residing variety of excellent fish, which are in Cephallenia after his banishment usually taken at night. As else from Italy. Moreover, from several where in these seas they are attracted Hellenic names, such as Paphos and by torches carried in the sterns of Aterra, still remaining, it would aptheir boats by the fishermen, who pear that there were also other smaller present a picturesque appearance towns or fortresses in the island. On amidst the darkness of the scenery. a peninsula in the northern district, There are various curiosities in this and commanding two harbours, stands neighbourhood well worthy the at- the medieval Castle of Assos: and a tention of strangers, besides the an- piece of Hellenic wall shows that here cient ruins; more particularly a stream was probably the site of an ancient of fresh water, rising in the sea about fortification. One of the most charmhalf a mile from the shore, and which, ing excursions in Cephalonia is that to on a very calm day may be seen gush- Assos. The cottages and vineyards ing up at least a foot above the sur- within the wide enclosure of the face. Again, near the shore at this deserted walls are very pretty and point there is a subterranean lake, or cheerful; while the picturesque vilabyss, open at the top, the circum- lage of Assos on the shore below, ference of which is about 150 yds. with its groves and gardens, relieves Further up the valley of Samos and the stern sublimity of the neighbournear the road to Argostoli, is another ing sea and mountains. singular cavern. Indeed, Cephalonia abounds in both artificial and natural curiosities.

The remains of Proni, or Pronesus, as it was also called, are to be found on the summits of the hills overlooking the beautiful valley of Racli (i. e. Heraclea), on the cast side of the island. We learn from Polybius (v. 3) that it was of old an inconsiderable town; and its coins are now very scarce; they bear generally the club of Hercules and the legend ΠΡ., ΠΡΟ., ΠΡΟΝΑΩΝ. N.B. Nesiota in Livy (xxxviii. 18) is probably a false reading for Pronesiotæ, the ethnic form of Pronesus. The valley of Racli is well worthy of a visit, as is also the bay of Poros in its vicinity. Here a Maltese colony and model-farm were established by Sir Charles Napier, while Resident of Cephalonia; but they are now given up (see Napier's 'Colonies,' &c., 1833). Besides these four city-communities, each of which was of sufficient importance to coin its own money, there are also some vestiges of a fifth upon Cape Scala, the S.E. point of the island. These last remains are of the Roman period, and probably belong to the town, which, as we learn from Strabo, C. Antonius, the colleague of Cicero in his consulship,

Again, the port of Guiscardo, near the northern extremity of the island (also called Cape Guiscardo), is evidently the ancient Panormus (Пávopuos), opposite Ithaca, alluded to in an epigram of the Anthology (Anthol. Gr.,' vol. ii. p. 99, ed. Jacobs). The modern name is derived from Robert Guiscard (in Italian Guiscardo), who died in Cephalonia A.D. 1085, on his second expedition against the Greek Empire. That great Norman chieftain had already, at the head of a few adventurers of his own race, founded the kingdom of Naples, and had seen the Emperors both of the East and of the West fly before his arms. Had it not been for his untimely death, it is not impossible that he might have forestalled the Latin conquest of Constantinople in A.D. 1204, and seated a Norman dynasty on the shores of the Bosphorus as well as on those of the Thames and of the Bay of Naples.

Cephalonia was correctly described by Homer and Strabo as a rugged and mountainous country. It has little of the soft beauty of Corfu and Zante. A lofty ridge runs across from N.W. to S.E., the lower declivities of which cover nearly the whole island. The highest summit of this range, rising to the height of

5380 ft., was called of old Enos, and upon it was a temple of Jupiter Enesius, as we learn from Strabo. Sir Henry Holland states that remains of an altar still existed here in A.D. 1813; but they have since disappeared, unless they be embedded in the cairn of stones which crowns the highest peaks. The Black Mountain (Monte Nero), as the Mount Enos of antiquity is now called, from the dark pine-forests with which it is partly clothed, is the most striking feature in the general aspect of Cephalonia.

in the hands of the French, when the Emperor's first remark was about the forest on the Black Mountain, and the utility of its timber for shipbuilding. Such was the knowledge possessed by that statesman and warrior of the resources even of the smallest of the many countries which owned his sway.

Currant-grapes are the staple commodity of Cephalonia. Wine and olive oil are also produced in considerable quantities. Sufficient corn is grown for the consumption of only a few months. Want of water is the great natural defect of the island. There is not a single constantly flowing stream; while the springs are neither numerous nor plentiful, and some of them fail entirely in dry summers. Property is much more divided in Cephalonia than in Zante; about one-sixth of the cultivated land belongs to the Convents, of which there are more than twenty in the island, and many of them are very ancient. The Convent of Sisi was particularly honoured by the Crusaders, who frequently landed in Cephalonia to pay their vows and offerings at its shrine.

The summit is accessible without much difficulty, and in about 5 hrs. from the capital. A good though steep road leads from Argostoli for about 6 m. to the Convent of St. Gerasimus, the patron-saint of the island, whose body is kept there, and to whom great veneration is paid. The road proceeds thence upwards on various parallels till it reaches the pass of San Liberale (Ayios Exevoépios). About 2 m. further is a cottage which formerly belonged to the Resident, surrounded by the pine-forest, in a beautiful situation, and more than 3000 ft. above the sea. Here a family might The Cephalonians are generally pass the summer in an almost English more enterprising and industrious climate. Hence the road dwindles than the other Ionians; indeed their into a mere goat-track, and proceeds quickness and activity have long through the pine-forest, skirting obtained them distinction among all several precipices, to the summit. Greeks; and they may be found The magnificent view from this settled as traders, medical practipoint amply repays the toil of the tioners, &c. throughout the Levant. ascent. Not only the whole of Since the island was placed under Cephalonia and of Ithaca, but the British protection, the local and Ionian Sea from Corfu to Zante, family feuds by which it was forthe coasts and mountains of Epirus, merly distracted have been repressed, Acarnania, and of the Peloponnesus, if not extinguished, though they still with their fringe of islets,-lie ex- occasionally, as in 1848 and 1849, tended as on a map before the eye. when stimulated by political excite There is snow on the Black Moun-ment, and by foreign revolutionary tain for several months in the year, and it is preserved during the summer in caverns, which answer the purpose of ice-houses. The pines have suffered from accidental fires, but were not thought unworthy of the notice of Napoleon. A Cephalonian gentleman is related to have been presented to him while the island was

emissaries, break out afresh. In September, 1848, an armed band of insurgents marched to the attack of Argostoli, but were encountered on the causeway at the entrance of the town by a Serjeant's guard of a dozen English soldiers of the 36th Regt. Several of the assailants fell, and five of the English had been

killed or wounded before reinforce- | commanding an extensive prospect. ments arrived; but the survivors Behind it and along the sea-shore gallantly maintained their ground stretch the two principal rides and against overwhelming odds. The drives of the Cephalonians, called reSerjeant, who, like Horatius Cocles, spectively Il grande and Il piccolo had kept the bridge so well," when giro, the former being 12, the latter asked by Lord Seaton, then Lord 5 m. in extent. In the village of High Commissioner, what reward he Metaxata, not far from the grande wished from the Crown for his ex-giro, and which can be conveniently cellent conduct, replied, "I only ask that my wife may be allowed to come out to me." His request was complied with, and he was also granted a medal, and a pension of 201. a-year for life. In August, 1849, a second insurrection broke out in Cepha- About 5 m. E. of Argostoli stands lonia, when frightful horrors were per- on an insulated hill the Venetian petrated by the insurgents, who were, Castle of St. George, which is well however, speedily crushed by the ener-worthy of a visit. It is not now getic measures of Sir H. Ward, the successor of Lord Seaton. (See Quarterly Review,' No. 182, and the 'Parliamentary Papers,' published in

1850.

The chief town, Argostoli ('ApyoσTÚλLOV), is situated on the shore of a creek branching out on the E. side of the arm of the sea, which extends deeply into the island from the S. The harbour is sheltered and safe, but grows shallow towards its termination, where a causeway 700 yds. in length has been thrown across it at a point where it is only a few feet deep. Here took place the struggle already described between the insurgent peasantry and an English detachment. Argostoli is entirely shut out from all prospect of the open sea; never having been fortified, it stretches about a mile along the excellent quays which line the harbour and form a promenade for the inhabitants, who are about 8000 in number. Most of the public buildings in the capital, as well as of the splendid roads which open out the island in all directions, were constructed while Sir Charles Napier was Resident. A low ridge of hills, whose declivities are covered with villages, vineyards, and olivegroves, rises behind Argostoli, intervening between this branch of the gulf and the southern coast of the island. On the summit of these hills a telegraph has been placed on a point

visited on the same excursion, is the house occupied by Lord Byron during the three months which he passed in Cephalonia in the winter of 1823-4. Many other pretty villas are scattered throughout the island.

kept in repair; but during the middle ages, the chief town of the island clustered round the walls of this fortress, the incursions of corsairs making it unsafe to live nearer the shore.

On the W. side of the great gulf, and nearer the open sea than Argostoli, is situated the town of Lixuri, containing 7000 inhabitants. It is not so well built as the seat of government, but is its rival in trade and local importance.

The

About a mile and a half from Argostoli, near the entrance of the harbour, occurs a phenomenon apparently contrary to the order of nature; the water of the sea flowing into the land in currents or rivulets, which are lost in the bowels of the earth, at a place where the shore is low and cavernous from the action of the waves. descending streams of salt-water flow with such rapidity that an enterprising Englishman some years ago erected a grist-mill on one of them. The flow is constant, unless the mouths through which the water enters are obstructed by seaweed. The fact is, however, that the sea flowing into the land is only a new form of a phenomenon of frequent occurrence in Greece. In the land-locked valleys and basins of its mountains, lakes and rivers often find for themselves subterranean passages (called kаraßólpa, i. e. Kaтaßáρa@pa) through the cavities of the rocks, and even pursue their un