Cliap. 98.] EEMAEKABLE OBJECTS. 123 



only driven about by tbe -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, tliere are two islands ^\ii\l 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, wliich 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. 



