TEBEESTBIAL PHENOMENA. 55 



man or beast of burden would not sink beneath its waters, 

 then this would be evidence for what he had said, and he 

 adds that, according to report, the waters of the lake are so 

 sharp and bitter that no fishes are found in them, and that, 

 by merely dipping clothes into its waters and then shaking 

 them, the clothes are washed.* These reports, which he was 

 evidently reluctant to believe, were much more reliable than 

 he thought them to be. 



In Chaonia, Aristotle says, a spring of rather salt water 

 rises and flows into a neighbouring river, t Eeferences are 

 also made to streams of acid water in the Sicanian territory 

 of Sicily, and near Lyncus, and to bitter waters in Scythia ; 

 Aristotle also says that, from the waters of Sicania, a sauce 

 was made and used just like vinegar, t 



Chaonia was a large district in Epirus, extending from the 

 Acroceraunian promontory on the north towards the Acheron 

 on the south. The spring to which Aristotle refers may be 

 a source of the river Cocytus, a tributary of the Acheron. 

 The modern name of the Cocytus is Vuvo, the waters of 

 which are said to be unfit for drinking purposes. Sicania 

 was the district about Agrigentum in the south of Sicily, 

 and in this part of the island there are many salt springs, 

 the waters from which flow into the Platini and Fiume 

 Salso, which are the modern representatives of the ancient 

 rivers Halycus and Hirnera, respectively. Lyncus was in 

 Lyncestis, a district of Macedonia near the Illyrian frontier. 

 At or near the modern Banitza are the acid waters of Lyn 

 cus, which were said to have had intoxicating qualities. It 

 is impossible to identify the bitter waters of Scythia, referred 

 to by Aristotle. Scythia was a territory of vast extent, 

 including most of southern Russia, and its boundaries were 

 indefinite and changed from time to time. 



In his Meteorol. i. c. 13, Aristotle gives an interesting 

 account of the chief mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas of the 

 ancient World, and this account represents probably all that 

 was best of the geographical knowledge of his time. His 

 own travels were confined mainly, and perhaps entirely, to 

 southern Macedonia, Attica, Eubooa, Lesbos, and Mysia, and 

 he was dependent, therefore, on those who, like Hecatasus 

 and Herodotus, had visited many lands. The World which 

 he describes extended from the Hindoo Koosh and the Indus 



* Meteorol. ii. c. 3, s, 39. f Ibid. ii. c. 3, s. 40. 



| Ibid. ii. c. 3, ss, 46 and 47. Smith s Diet, of Classic. Geogr. 



