BOOK II. cvi. 224-226 



have never reached bottom. CVI. This is rendered 

 more remarkable by springs of fresh water bubbUng out 

 as if from pipes on the seashore. In fact the nature 

 of water also is not deficient in marvels. Patehes of 

 fresh water float on the sm-face of the sea, being 

 doubtless Hghter. Consequently also sea-water being Remarkabu 

 of a heavier natui-e gives more support to objects ^^"^^["^* " 

 floating upon it. But some fresh waters too float on 

 the surface of others ; cases are the river carried on 

 the surface of Lake Fucino, the Adde on the Lake of 

 Como, the Ticino on Maggiore, the Mincio on 

 Garda, the Olho on Lago dTseo, the Rhone on the 

 Lake of Geneva (the last north of the Alps, but all 

 the rest in Italy), after a passing visit that covers 

 many miles carrying out their own waters only and 

 no larger quantity than they introduced. This has 

 also been stated in the case of the river Orontes in 

 Syria and many others. But some rivers so hate the 

 sea that they actually flow underneath the bottom of 

 it, for instance the spring Arethusa at Syracuse, in 

 which things emerge that have been thrown into the 

 Alpheus which flows through Olympia and reaches the 

 coast in the Peloponnese. Instances of rivers that flow 

 under ground and come to the sm-face again are the 

 Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in the ArgoUd and the 

 Tigris in Mesopotamia; and objects thrown into the 

 Spring of Aesculapius at Athens are given back again 

 in Phaleron Harbour. Also a river that goes under- 

 ground in the Plain of Atinas comes out 20 miles 

 further on, as also does the Timavus in the district 

 of Aquileia. In Lake Asphaltis in Judaea, which 

 produces bitumen, nothing can sink, and also in the 

 Aretissa in Greater Armenia ; the latter indeed is a 

 nitrous lake that supports fish. A lake near the town 



353 



