Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/373

 Chap. 27.] ACCOirN"T OP COTJNTEIES, ETC. 339 islands which are to be found between the moutlis of the Ister we have already mentioned^ Before the Borysthenes is Achillea" previously referred to, known also by the names of Leuce and Macaron^. Researches which have been made at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fil'ty from the island of Pence. It is about ten miles in circumference. The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cepha- lonnesos, Rhosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed by many writers that all the interior^ seas take their rise in this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of Gades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an improbable one — the fact that the tide is always running out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb. AVe must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer por- tions'" of Europe. After passing the Riphsean mountains we ^ In C. 24 of the present Book. ^ Mentioned in the last Chapter as the " Island of AchUles." ' From the Greek fiaKapwi', " (The island) of the Blest." It was also called the " Island of the Heroes." ^ Meaning aU the inland or Mediterranean seas. is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than tran- scribe the learned remarks of M.Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajas- son's Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, " Before entering on the discussion of tliis portion of Pliny's geography, let us here obsen^e, once for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice aU those ridiculous hypotheses which covJd only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or a love of the marvellous. We shall dechne then to recognize the Doflre- felds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of Rubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity of these suppositions is proved by — I. The impossibility of the ancients ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large vessels, the compass, and others of those apphances, aided by which Eu- ropean skill finds the greatest difficulty m navigating tliosc distant seas. II. The immense lacuna; which woidd be found to exist hi the. descrip- tions of these distant seas and shores : for not a word do we find about those numerous arcliipelagos which are found scatten'd tlirougliout tlio North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The abseniie of all remarks upon the local phamomena of these spots. The Norl.h Cape belongs to the second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half. Is it hkcly that navigators would have omitted to mention this renuirkablc phsenomenon, well known to the Kumuus by virtue of their astronomical z2
 * As the whole of Phny's description of the northern shores of Europe