482 pliny's natural history. [Book XXXI. 



while the margin is clothed with a green herbaceous plant of 

 a peculiar species. In Macedonia, not far from the tomb of 

 the Poet Euripides, is the confluence of two streams, the water 

 of one of which is extremely wholesome, that of the other 

 fatal. 



CHAP. 20. — WATERS WHICH PETRIFY, THEMSELVES, OR CAUSE OTHER 

 OBJECTS TO PETRIFY. 



AtPerperena,^^ there is a spring which petrifies*^^ the ground 

 wherever it flows, the same being the case also, with the hot 

 waters at -3^depsus, in Euboea ; for there, wherever the stream 

 falls, the rocks are continually increasing in height. At Eury- 

 menae,*^ chaplets, when thrown into the waters of a certain foun- 

 tain there, are turned to stone. At Colossae there is a river, into 

 the water of which if bricks^^ are thrown, when taken out they 

 are found changed into stone. In the mines of Scyros, the trees 

 petrify that are watered by the river, branches and all. In 

 the caverns of Mount Corycus, the drops of water that trickle 

 down the rocks become hard in the form of a stone.^^ At 

 Mieza, too, in Macedonia, the water petrifies as it hangs from 

 the vaulted roofs of the rocks ; but at Corycus it is only when 

 it has fallen that it becomes hard. 



In other caverns,' again, the water petrifies both ways,^^^ and 

 so forms columns ; as we find the case in a vast grotto at Phau- 

 sia, a town of the Chersonesus^''' of the Rhodians, the columns 

 of which are tinted with various colours. These instances will 

 sufiBce for the present. 



CHAP. 21. "^3.) THE WHOLESOMENESS OF WATERS. 



It is a subject of enquiry among medical men, which kind 

 of water is the most beneficial. They condemn, and with 

 justice, all stagnant, sluggish, waters, and are of opinion that 

 running water is the best, being rendered lighter and more 



'^ A town of Mysia, south of Adramyttium. 



•■■^ As Ajasson remarks, numerous instances are known of this at tlie 

 present day. Pliny, however, does not distinguish the incrusiing springs 

 from the petrifying sprinf^s. 



^^ In Thessaly, according to Uecatseus. 



*^ "Lateres." He means unburnt bricks, probably. 



"■^ He alludes to stalactites and stalagmites. 



*^ r>oth on the roof and on the floor. 



*' lu Caria, opposite Khodes. 



