bQ'l PHILOSOPHICAL TIIANSACTIONS. {aNNO I67I. 



enamel, appear as fresh as if they had been laid on but a month before. There 

 are temples so spacious that 3000 people may stand on the roof with ease. In 

 the same castle there is a pond, the water whereof is bitter, set about with fine 

 stones. This water is said perfectly to whiten linen all alone; which I tried not, 

 but we dipped our handkerchief in it, which kept the scent of soap for four or 

 five days. 



These are the only curiosities I can send you of our voyage, which is not the 

 fiftieth part of what was to be seen ; but our time being limited we only could 

 stay in two places, our design not being curiosity, but to satisfy the charge of 

 the mission among the Christian Cophts of that country, which are in great 

 number there, and have many monasteries and ancient churches, but poor. 



Extract of a Letter from F. Jaques Paul Babin, a Jesuit, concerning 

 the irregular Flux and Reflux of tJie Euripus. iV" 71? p. 2153. 



The Euripus is a strait of the j^Egean Sea, so narrow, that a galley can scarce 

 pass through it, under a bridge, built between the Citadel and the Donjon of 

 Negropont. Not only this place, where the bridge is, is called the Euripus, 

 but also ten or twelve leagues on each side of it, where the channel being wider, 

 the inconstant course is not so sensible as at the foot of the castle. For three 

 or four leagues on each side there are found six or seven gulfs, wherein this 

 water shuts itself up, to issue from thence as often as it enters there; and the 

 situation of these gulfs contributes to the oddness of this flux and reflux ; of 

 which the moon seems to be the principal cause. 



There are 10 days of each moon, in which the course of the Euripus is re- 

 gular, and ten, in which it is irregular ; that is, five days before and five days 

 after the new and full moon, the course of it is regular and strong ; and then 

 you see there the like phaenomena with those of the ocean at Bourdeaux. The 

 sea has two fluxes and refluxes in almost 25 hours. But there are nine or 

 ten changes of the course of the water during the remaining ten days of in- 

 equality; unless it blow hard, for then the course changes not above six or 

 seven times. I once stayed on the mill, which is under the bridge, l-i- hour, 

 and I saw the course of the water change thrice, though the wind was pretty 

 high ; and the wheels of the mill turned as often divers ways. — In the Euripus 

 the water rises not much above a foot. In the ocean it is observed, that the 

 water in its rising flows into the ports and towards the land, and in its fall runs 

 into the main; but in the Euripus, when the water rises it runs then into the 

 sea, and when it sinks, it flows into the channel going towards Constantinople. 

 The small gulfs, that are on the left side of the port of Negropont, are filled 



