306 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



or Hadria, on the margin of the river. The present 

 town stands more than twenty feet above the original 

 foundations, and ten above that which existed in the 

 time of the Romans ; facts which, taking the accumu- 

 lation of the soil, near the mouth of the river, to have 

 advanced at an equal rate, would give about 3600 

 years for the arrival of the colony which first com- 

 menced the city. Such a period is consistent with the 

 first arrival of the Celtae in Gaul. 



The Semi-Finnic Tyrheni were certainly allied to the 

 Thraco-Pelasgians, and spoke a dialect not yet clearly 

 ascertained ; had at a very early period an alphabet, 

 which, although primarily also of sixteen letters, neither 

 coincides with the Cadmean nor with the Roman.* 

 They were in possession of a growing civilization, 

 such as smelting ores, and casting in brass effigies 

 and bas-reliefs of divinities and men (they could even 

 plate them with silver and gold), and made fictile vases 

 variously coloured ; whereon, either in consequence of 

 captured Greeks being among their early slaves, or 

 from causes not known, there are found depicted Hel- 

 lenic Mythi, often with circumstances not mentioned 

 in the Greek poets, and yet extending over the whole 

 geographical surface of their fables, from Palestine 

 and Asia Minor to Sicily, and even to Gades in Spain. 

 Like the Pelasgians, they built walls of cities with 



* It appears that the Greek alphabet never contained at 

 one time all the Etruscan forms, and they continued to 

 write from right to left. It is probable the early Celts 

 wrote with the same letters. 



