544 RUINS OF THE PLAIN OF TROY. 



tide it to (heir subsequent consideration, with reference to the 

 sepulchre of Myrinna. 



\Ve now proceeded to the Califat Ostnack, or Califat water, a 

 river (hat can scarce he said to flow towards tin- Mender; yet so 

 de< p, ti at we \\ ere conducted to a fonl in order to pass, liuiu 

 dnds of tortoises, alarmed at our approach, were lulling from its 

 banks into the water, as well as from the overhanging branches 

 and thick underwood, among which these animals, of all others 

 the least adapted to climb trees, had angularly obtained a footing. 

 \Yilil-fowl also were in great abundance, and in (he corn- land par- 

 tridges were frequently observed 1 have no hesitation in stating, 

 that I conceive this river to be the Simois ; nor would there per- 

 haps remain a doubt upon the subject, if it were not for the pre- 

 judice excited in consequence of a marvellous error, which has 

 prevailed throughout all the recent discussion concerning Troas, 

 with regard to ti e sources of the Scamander. Pope seems first of 

 all to have fallen into the notion of the double origin of that river: 

 since his time, Wood, Chevalier, and their followers, have main- 

 tained that the Scamander had two sources, one of which was hot, 

 and the other cold. The whole of this representation has been 

 founded upon a misconstruction of the word 11HFAI. The Sca- 

 mander has therefore been described as having its rise from two 

 sources in the Plain, near the Soaean gate of the city ; hence all the 

 zeal which has been shewn in giving to the springs of Bonarbashy 

 the name of those sources, although they are many in number, 

 and all of them warm springs, as witt hereafter appear. Having 

 once admitted this palpable delusion concerning the sources of the 

 Scamander, notwithstanding the very judicious remonstrances of 

 Mr. Bryant upon this part of the subject, and the obvious inter- 

 pretation of the text of Homer, the wildest theories ensued. All 

 attention to the 1'lain of Troas on the north-eastern side of the 

 Mender was abandoned ; nothing was talked of excepting Bonar. 

 bashy, and its warm fountains ; and these being once considered 

 as the source of the Scamander, were further reconciled with Ho- 

 mer's description, by urging the absurdity of believing Achill 

 have pursued Hector on the heights of Ida, when the chace is said 

 to have happened near the walls of Troy. But the plain matter of 

 fact is, that Homer, in no part of his poems, has stated either the 

 temperature of the S: amander at its source, or its double orLin. 

 la no part of his poems is there any thing equivocal, or obscure, 



