26 History of Nature. [BooK IV. 



Mouth to the Mouth of Tanais, by a straight Course, it is 375 

 Miles. The Inhabitants of that Bay have been named in 

 the mention of Thracia, as far as to Istropolis. From thence 

 the Mouths of Ister. This River riseth among the Hills of 

 Abnoba, a Mountain of Germany, over against Rauricum, a 

 Town in Gallia, and passing many Miles beyond the Alps, and 

 through innumerable Nations, under the Name of Danubius, 

 with a mighty increase of Waters, and whence he first be- 

 ginneth to wash Illyricum taking the Name of Ister, after 

 he hath received 60 Rivers, and almost the one-half of them 

 navigable, rolleth into Pontus with six vast Streams. The 

 first Mouth of it is Peuces : soon after, the Island Peuce 

 itself, from which the next Channel took its name, and is 

 swallowed up in a great Marsh of 19 Miles. Out of the 

 same Channel, and above Astropolis, a Lake is produced of 

 63 Miles' compass ; which they call Halmyris. The second 

 Mouth is called Naracustoma : the third, Calostoma, near 

 the Island Sarmatica : the fourth, Pseudostoma, and the 

 Island Conopon Diabasis. After that, Boreostoma, and 

 Spireostoma. Each of these is so great, that by Report 

 the Sea, for 40 Miles' length, is overmatched with the 

 same, and the fresh Water may so far be tasted. From it, 

 into the inland Parts, the People are all Scythians : but 

 various other Nations inhabit close on the Coasts : in some 

 Places the Getae, called by the Romans Daci : in others the 

 Sarmatse, by the Greeks Sauromatse ; and among them, the 

 Hamaxobii or Aorsi. Elsewhere the degenerate Scythians, 

 who are sprung from Servants, or the Troglodites : presently, 

 the Alani and Rhoxalani. But the higher Parts between Da- 

 nubius and the Forest Hercynius, as far as to the Panrionian 

 wintering Places of Carnuntum, and the Confines there of 

 the Germans, the Fields and Plains of Jazyge, the Sar- 

 matians possess. But the Mountains and Forests, the Daci, 

 who were expelled by them, inhabit, as far as to the River 

 Parhyssus from Morus ; or this is Duria, dividing them 

 from the Suevi and the Kingdom of Vanni. The Parts 

 against these the Bastarnae hold ; and from thence other 

 Germani. Agrippa hath set down that whole Tract, from 



