322 ESTIMATES OF MOUNTAINS IN ANTIQUITY. [CHAP.

here and there the surface is marshy, and by night jets of
inflammable gas proceed from it. Thus, while those familiar
with the neighbourhood take precautions when they are wood-
cutting, the majority are exposed to risk, and this is especially
the case with the beasts of burden, which fall into hidden pits
of fire1.1 In another passage of the same writer
or Tmoius. ;s a description of a sort of belvedere, con-

structed on one of the summits of Mount Tmoius in Lydia, which
appears to have been a legacy from the time of the Persian
occupation of the country. ' Above Sardis rises Tmoius, a fertile
mountain, which has on its ridge a look-out place, consisting of
an arcade of white stone, the work of the Persians, from which
the surrounding plains are in view, and especially that of the
Cayster2.' The geographer himself scaled the Acrocorinth, and
viewed the panorama from it, which is one of the finest and
most interesting in Greece. Of this he introduced a description
into his work, but unfortunately it has reached us in a mutilated
condition3.

Towards the conclusion of this survey of mountain ascents
we have once more met with the same motive for
undertaking them by which, as we saw at starting,

of the Hadrian was influenced — namely the desire of
Panorama. J
obtaining a panorama over a widely extended tract
of country. In Livy we find a curious account of an expedition
which was made by Philip V. of Macedon to the highest peak
of the Haemus range, with the object of reconnoitring from
thence in connexion with the war which he had in hand against
the Romans, because it was widely believed that it commanded
a view over the Danube and the Alps, and both the Adriatic
and the Euxine seas. Three days, we are told, were occupied
by the king and his companions in ascending from the foot
of the mountains to the summit With regard to the view the
historian cautiously remarks, that after their return they said
1 Strabo, 12. a. 7.
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s 8. 6. 91.