And of the Trojan Plain. 179 
Scamander derived its origin. This inter- 
pretation is not borne out by Homer, who 
describes them simply as two fountains, not 
the two sources, of the Scamander; intending, 
perhaps, nothing more, than two springs 
which supplied, or feeders of that river, 
which in fact they are. On this supposition, 
therefore, the springs of Bournabashi may 
be the two fountains of the Scamander des- 
cribed by Homer, and yet the Bournabashi 
stream not be the Scamander. 
The accounts of the size of the Mender 
seem to differ, according to the theories of 
those who describe it, and Chevalier, who is 
anxious to make it as small as possible, talks 
of crossing it dry-shod. Clarke and Gell, 
however, give us the measured width of it, 
in the lower part of its course, as from 3 to 
400 feet ; and in the higher part of its course, 
where I repeatedly crossed it in the month of 
June, after along series of dry weather, I 
found it wider than the Mersey above War- 
rington, and half as wide as the Thames at 
Richmond Bridge, with a considerable body 
of water, and flowing with great velocity. 
At all events Homer’s Scamander was not a 
brook to be crossed dry-shod, for he gives 
the following description of it before its in- 
dignant waters rose to overwhelm Achilles. 
