^32 plint's natural history. 



[Book II. 



smus m Argolis, and the Tigris' in Mesopotamia, sink into to- 

 eartli and hurst out again. Substances which are thrown 

 into tlie fountain of ^sculapius at Athens^ are cast up at 

 the fountain of Phalerum. The river which sinks into the 

 ground in the plain of Atinum^ comes up again at the 

 distance of twenty miles, and the Timavus does the same 

 m Aquileia^ 



In the lake Asplialtites, in Judsea, which produces bitumen, 

 no substance will sink, nor in the lake Arethusa^ in the 

 Greater Armenia : in this lake, although it contains nitre 

 hsh are found. In the country of the Salentini, near the 

 town of Mandui'ia, there is a lake« full to the brim, the 

 waters of which are never diminished by what is taken out 

 of it, nor increased by what is added. Wood, which is 

 thrown into the river of the Cicones^ or into the lake Yelinus 

 m Picenum, becomes coated with a stony crust, while in the 

 Sarins, a river of Colchis, the whole substance becomes as 

 hard as stone. In the same manner, in the Silarus^ beyond 



1 This is again referred to by oui^ author, vi. 31 j also by Strabo, and 

 bj Seneca, Nat. Qusest. iii. 26. 



^ Pansanias. 



3 The river here refen-ed to is the Tanager, the modern Eio Negro. See 

 the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandi-e m Lemaire, i. 439. 



^ From a note in Pomsinet, i. 302, we learn that there has been some 

 dgubt respectmg the locahty of this river. It is mentioned by Virgil 

 Mn. 1 244, and it forms the subject of Heyne's 7th Excursus, ii. 124 el 

 seq. ^ u'gil also speaks of the Tunavus, Ec. viii. 6 ; and Heyne, in a note 

 gives the toUowmg description of it : " Timavus in ora Adriee, non longe 

 ab Aqmleia fluvius ex terra novem fontibus seu capitibus progressus 

 brevi cursu, m unum alveimi coUectus, lato altoque flumine in mare 

 exit." i. 127, 128. 



5 This remark is not to be taken in its fuU extent ; the water of these 

 lakes contams a large quantity of sahne and other substances dissolved 

 in It, and, consequently, has its specific gravity so much increased, that 

 various substances float on it whicli sink m pure water. 



6 According to Hardouin, tliis is now caUed the Lake of Andoria, near 

 the town of Casahiuovo ; Lemaire, i. 439. Poinsmet caUs it Anduria 

 1. 303. ' 



7 The petrifying quality of tliis river is referred to by Ovid, Met. xv. 

 313, 314 ; Seneca quotes these Imes when treating on tliis subject Nat 

 Quajst. iii. 20. j > • 



8 Ai'istotle, Strabo, and Silius Itahcus, viii. 582, 583, refer to this pro- 

 perty of the SHarus ; but, accordmg to Brotier, it does not appear to be 

 known to tlie present inliabitants of the district thi-ough which it flows. 

 Lomaire, i. 410. 



