Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/158

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [is s. HI. FKB. a*, mr.

locked valleys and basins of its mountains, lakes and rivers often find for themselves subterranean passages (called Ka.Ta.p66 'pa, i.e., KarafidpaOpa) through the cavities of the rocks, and even pursue their unseen course for a considerable distance before they emerge again to the light of day. Channels of this kind carry off the waters of the Lake of Joannina in Epirus, and of the Copaic Lake in Bceotia, and are frequent in Arcadia. (See Leake's ' Morea,' vol. iii. pp. 45, 153-5, 263, &c.) Their familiarity with these freaks of nature was probably the origin of the ex- travagant legends of the ancient Greeks about long submarine courses of rivers, e.g., of the Alpheus of Elis reappearing in the Sicilian fountain of Arethusa."

In April, 1890, when making a little voyage from Smyrna to Corfu, which took over five days, as the steamer, an Austrian Lloyd, called at several of the islands, I had an opportunity of visiting Argostoli in Cephalonia. With one of the ship's officers I went to see the salt-water stream and the mills. The stream is about a mile from the landing-place at Argostoli. If I remem- ber rightly, when I saw it, it was some six feet wide, the water very clear. Only one of the two mills was working. I was told by the officer that when the English had possession of the island, they had a quantity of oil poured into the sea water holes, hoping to find out where the stream went to, but the oil disappeared and was no more seen. The experiment was a failure.

Other curiosities of Cephalonia may be worth mentioning, as described in Murray's ' Handbook. .. .Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey,' &c., 1845, p. 13. They are in and near the Bay of Samos on the N.E. side of the island :

" A stream of fresh water, which rises in the sea about half a mile from the shore, and which, on a very calm day, may be seen rising at least a foot above the level of the sea. Near the shore at this point [near the town of Samos] is a mag- nificent subterranean lake, or large abyss, open at the top, the circumference of which is about 100 or 150 yards. In the centre of this abyss, at a depth of about 50 yards, is the lake, which is of immense (and it is said) unfathomable depth, though the water is beautifully clear. The natives are very superstitious with regard to descending into the cave (which is certainly a dangerous and difficult experiment, as they have to be let down and drawn up again with cords), for they say no one ever lives who makes the attempt. The writer, however, though he remembers cases of death from it, remembers also some English travellers getting off with a smart fever, caught, it is presumed, by the sudden chill of the atmosphere in going into it. There is further up in the Valley of Samos, near the hamlet of Servata, on the road to Argostoli, a very curious subterraneous cavern, resembling the grotto of Antipater, the stalactites in which are immense: it contains numerous rooms, and the descent is by no means difficult or dangerous."

At the end of this extract are the initials^ J. B. Whom they indicate I do not know- Playfair (p. 251) and Murray's ' Handbook,' fourth edition, 1872 (p. 70) give abbrevia- tions of the above.

A. B. C. asks about " the gorge or cavern into which it [the salt-water stream] runs or falls."' As far as I remember there is neither gorge nor cavern. The short account in my diary records nothing of the sort.. My belief is that the water quietly vanishes into the earth.

Further, I take the following from Baedeker's ' Greece, Handbook for Travel- lers,' second edition, 1894, p. 16, concerning Argostoli :

"Sea Mills. The first is the Mitt of Dr-

Migliaressi, established in 1859, and $ M. further on, at the N. end of the peninsula,, is the Old Mill, erected by Mr. Stevens in 1835, where we obtain a better view of the phe- nomenon, whence the mills derive their narne- The mills are driven by a current of sea-water,, which flows into the land for about 50 yds. through an artificial channel, finally disappearing amid clefts and fissures in the limestone rock~ Authorities are not yet unanimous as to the-: explanation of this unique phenomenon."

I suppose that the fifty yards length refers only to the " artificial channel." Perhaps. " artificial " means that either the original* channel was straightened, or that several rivulets were trained into one channel, or both.

As to the " gorge or cavern " suggested in the query, possibly there is a confusion of the sea-water stream near Argostoli with the " subterranean lake or large abyss " near Samos on the opposite side of the' island. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

HERALDIC QUERIES (12 S. ii. 195,197; iii. 59). In addition to ' N. & Q.'s own- motto " When found, make a note of," there are one or two others, the observance- of which seems to me to be equally essential to its character as a trustworthy reference- upon all matters of out-of-the-way or other exceptional interest. One of these is " Verify your quotations " ; and another, which I trust your correspondents will not mind my saying, is " Give your authorities.'"

Unless the mere ipse dixit of a person is sufficient for any statement of his to be received with absolute confidence in its accuracy and there are many such, I am happy to say, amongst the correspondents of ' N. & Q.' it is always advisable, if possible, to indicate the authority for any such statement in answer to a question in ' N. & Q.' All the more necessary is this, as it seems to me, when your corre-