PAXO, or Paxos, one of the Ionian Islands (q.v.), about 8 miles south of the southern extremity of Corfu, is a hilly mass of limestone 5 miles long by 2 broad, and not more than 600 feet high. Though it has only a single stream and a few springs, and the inhabitants were often obliged, before the Russians and English provided them with cisterns, to bring water from the mainland, Paxo is well clothed with olives, which produce oil of the very highest quality. Gaion (or, less correctly, Gaia), the principal village, lies on the east coast, and has a small har-hour. Towards the centre, on an eminence, stands Papandi, the residence of the bishop of Paxo, and throughout the island are scattered a large number of churches, whose belfries add greatly to the picturesqueness of the views. On the west and south-west coasts are some extensive and remarkable caverns, of which an account will be found in Davy’s Ionian Islands, vol. i. pp. 66-71. Ancient writers— Polybius, Pliny, <fcc.—41o not mention Paxos by itself, but apply the plural form Paxi (∏α^ot) to Paxos and the smaller island which is now known as Antipaxo (the Propaxos of the Antonine Itinerary). Compare Pan, p. 208 above.