Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/157

 Cliap. 98.] EEMAEKABLE OBJECTS. 123 only driven about by the -wand, but may be even pushed at pleasure from place to place, by poles : many citizens saved themselves by this means in the Mithridatic war. There are some small islands in the Kymphaeus, called the Dancers because, when choruses are sung, they are moved by the motions of those who beat time. In the great Italian lake of Tarquinii, there are two islands ^iil groves on them, which are di'iven about by the wind, so as at one time to exhibit the figure of a triangle and at another of a circle ; but they never form a square^'. CHAP. 97. (96.) PLACES liN" WHICH IT KEYER IlAI]SrS. There is at Paphos a celebrated temple of Venus, in a certain coiu't of which it never rains ; also at Xea, a town of Troas, in the spot which surrounds the statue of IMinerva : in this place also the remains of animals that are sacrificed ne^er putrefy^. CHAP. 98. THE WO^'DERS OE TARIOUS COIJ^"TRIES COLLECTED TOGETHER. IS^ear Harpasa, a to^^^l of Asia, there stands a terrific rock, which may be moved by a single finger ; but if it be pushed by the force of the ^^-hole body, it resists"*. In the Tauric peninsula, in the state of the Parasini, there is a kind of ^ "Saltuares." In some of the MSS. the term here employed is Saharcs, or Saltares ; but in all the editions which I am in the habit of consulting, it is Saltuares. ^ There is, no doubt, some truth in these accoiuits of floating islands, although, as we may presume, much exaggerated. There are fi-equently small portions of land detaclied from the edges of lakes, by floods or rapid currents, held together and rendered buoyant by a mass of roots and vegetable matter. In the lake of Kes-vnck, in the county of CXun- berland, there are two small floating islands, of a few yards in circum- fej-ence, which are moved about by the wind oi' by currants ; they appear to consist, principally, of a mass of vegetable fibres. 3 It has been observed, that there are certain places where bodies remain for a long time without imdergoing decomposition ; it depends principally upon a diy and cool condition of the air, such as is occa- sionally found hi vaults and natural caverns. See the reuiarks of Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 424. ■* We may conceive of a large mass of rock being so balanced upon the fine point of another rock, as to be moved by the slightest touch ; but, that if it be pushed with any force, it may be thrown upon a plane sui'- Ikce, and will then remain immovable.