Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/494

 480 STRABO. CASAUB. 312. There is a promontory, distant about 15 stadia from the wall of Chersonesus, which forms a large bay, which bends towards the city. Above this bay is a sea-lake, where there are salt pits. Here was the harbour Ctenus. The generals of the king, in order to strengthen their means of resistance in case of siege, stationed a garrison on the above-mentioned promontory, which was further protected by a fortification. The mouth of the Gulf was closed by an embankment which extended to the city, and was easily traversed on foot. The garrison and the city were thus united. The Scythians were afterwards easily repulsed. They attacked that part of the wall built across the isthmus which touches upon Ctenus, and filled the ditch with straw. The kind of bridge thus formed by day, was burnt at night by the king's generals, who con- tinued their resistance and defeated the enemy. At present the whole country is subject to whomsoever the Romans may appoint as king of the Bosporus. 8. It is a custom peculiar to all the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes, to castrate theirhorses, in order to make them more tractable/, for althougFTtneylire small, yet they are spirited, and difficult to manage. Stags and wild boars are jumted in the marshes, and wild asses and roes l in the plains. It is a peculiarity of this country, that no eagles are to be found in it. Among the quadrupeds there is an animal called Colus, in size between a deer and a ram ; it is white, and swifter in speed than either of those animals. It draws up water into the head through the nostrils ; from this store it can supply itself for several days, and live without inconvenience in places destitute of water. Such is the nature of the whole of the country beyond the Danube, lying between the Rhine and the Don, and extend- ing as far as the Pontic Sea and the Palus Mceotis. CHAPTER V. 1. THERE remains to be described that part of Europe included between the Danube and the sea which surrounds it,