General outline of the country.

1. In the Thermaic bay, the modern gulf of Salonichi, three rivers of considerable size fall into the sea at very short distances from one another, but which meet in this place in very different directions. The largest of the three comes from the north-west, and is now called (as indeed it was in the time of Tzetzes and Anna Comnena) the Bardares (or Vardar), and was in ancient days celebrated under the name of Axius. Its stream is increased by large tributary branches on both sides, and chiefly by the Erigon, which flows from the mountains of Illyria. The river next in order runs from the west; it is now called in the interior of the country Potova, and on the coast Carasmac; its ancient name, as is evident from passages in Herodotus and Strabo, was Lydias, or Ludias. And, lastly, after many turnings and windings, the Haliacmon, now called Bichlista, flows from the south-west; in the time of Herodotus it fell into the sea through the same mouth as the Lydias, probably being widened by marshes; and in modern maps the interval between the two rivers is represented as very small.