Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/372

 338 plint's katueal history. [Book rv. them on to their neighbours, and so from one to the other, till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this custom, even, in time fell into disuse. The length of Sarmatia, Scjthia, and Taurica, and of the whole of the region which extends from the river Bory- sthenes, is, according to Agrippa, 980 miles, and its breadth 717. I am of opinion, however, that in this part of the earth all estimates of measurement are exceedingly doubtful. CHAP. 27.— THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE. THE ISLANDS or THE NOETHEEN OCEAN. But now, in conformity vnth the plan which I originally proposed, the remaining portions of this gulf must be de- scribed. As for its seas, we have already made mention of them. (13.) The Hellespont has no islands belonging to Europe that are worthy of mention. In the Euxine there are, at a distance of a mile and a half from the European shore, and of fourteen from the mouth of the Strait, the two Cyansean^ islands, by some called the Symplegades^, and stated in fabu- lous story to have run the one against the other ; the reason being the circumstance that they are separated by so short an interval, that while to those who enter the Euxine opposite to them they appear to be two distinct islands, but if viewed in a somewhat oblique direction they have the appearance of becoming gradually united into one. On this side of the Ister there is the single island^ of the Apolloniates, eighty miles from the Thracian Bosporus ; it was from this place that M. Lucullus brought the Capitoline^ Apollo. Those ^ These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople. 2 From <Tvv and TrXrjyrf, "a striking together." Tournefort has ex- plained the ancient story of these islands runnmg together, by remarking that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is distui'bed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different points of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the maioland by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in stormy weather. 3 Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboh), mentioned in C 18 of the present Book, was situate. "was tliii'ty cubits in height.
 * So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the Capitol. It