Account of a Curious Phenomenon in Cephahnia. 117 



of the phenomena. He has in part compiled with my wishes ; 

 this morning I have been favoured with a second letter from 

 him, giving the results of his inquiries, and requesting me to 

 make any use of them I may think proper. I cannot do better, 

 therefore, in relation to the object which I have in view, than 

 to give his description in his own words, extracted from the let- 

 ter just referred to, which is dated Itliaca, May 26. 



" About a mile and a half from the town of Angostoh, in 

 Cephalonia, near the entrance of the harbour, there are four de- 

 scending streams of sea-water. Three of them are near to each 

 other ; the fourth is distant about four hundred yards. Their 

 existence has been long known to the inhabitants of Cephalonia, 

 but the particular period of their discovery is uncertain. No 

 one possessing this information, it appears, had intelligence 

 enough to be struck by the phenomena, or sufficient ingenuity 

 to avail himself of them for useful purposes, until about twelve 

 months ago, when the attention of Mr Stephens, lately collector 

 of customs in Cephalonia, was directed to them. 



" This gentleman, soon appreciating the probable value of 

 such streams in the vicinity of the two principal towns in the 

 island (Angostoli and Lixuri), lost no time in obtaining from 

 the local government a lease of them for a certain number of 

 years, and is at this moment erecting a grist-mill on the site of 

 one of them, with the almost certain prospect of success. Hence 

 lie has dug a trench of sufficient depth and breadth to receive 

 the frame-work of his building, and to obtain the necessary 

 height of perpendicular fall. This, which varies somewhat with 

 the occasional rise and fall of the sea (chiefly caused by the pe- 

 culiar formation of the harbour and prevailing winds), Mr Ste- 

 phens confidently calculates will seldom be under two and a 

 half feet, and that the apertures which communicate with the 

 trench will freely deliver two hundred square inches of water, 

 flowing in at the rate of fifteen feet per second. 



" It is a curious fact that streams of fresh water are constantly 

 flowing through numerous fissures into the trench, and in a di- 

 rection apparently opposite to that which the sea-water takes in 

 escaping ; for, whenever this (the water from the sea) is pre- 

 vented from rushing in, the water in the trench invariably rises 

 a considerable number of inches higher t'lan it docs at any other 

 time, and is brackish to the taste. 



