100 History of Nature. [BooK VI. 



being satisfied, until they are very wide, and the Lake 

 Moeotis joiueth its ruin to them. And that this hath 

 happened in spite of the Earth, appeareth by so many 

 Straits and such narrow Passages of opposing nature, 

 considering that at the Hellespont the Breadth is not 

 above 875 Paces : and at the two Bosphori even Oxen easily 

 pass over : and hereupon they both took their Name : and in 

 this disunion appeareth an agreement of relationship. For 

 Cocks may be heard to crow, and Dogs to bark from one 

 Side to the other : and by the interchange of Human Speech 

 Men out of these two Worlds may talk one to another in 

 continued discourse, if the Winds do not carry away the 

 Sound. 



Some have made the Measure of Pontus from the Bos- 

 phorus to the Lake Moeotis to be 1438 Miles. But Erato- 

 sthenes reckoneth it less by one hundred. Agrippa saith, 

 that from Chalcedon to Phasis is a thousand Miles; and 

 onward to Bosphorus Cimmerius, 360 Miles. We will set 

 down in general the Distances of Places collected in our own 

 Days, when our Armies have carried on W T ar even in the 

 very Mouth of the Cimmerian Strait. 



Beyond the Straits of the Bosphorus is the River 

 Rhebas, which some have called Rhcesus: and beyond it, 

 Psillis : the Port of Calpas ; and Sangarius, one of the prin- 

 cipal Rivers : it ariseth in Phrygia, receiveth large Rivers 

 into it, and amongst the rest Tembrogius and Gallus. The 

 same Sangarius is by many called Coralius ; from which 

 begin the Gulfs Mariandirii and the Town Heraclea, situated 

 upon the River Lycus. It is from the Mouth of Pontus 

 200 Miles. There is the Port Acone, cursed with the 

 poisonous Aconitum ; and the Cave Acherusia. The Rivers 

 Pedopiles, Callichorum, and Sonantes. Towns, Tium, eight- 

 and-thirty Miles from Heraclea : the River Bilis. 



expanse of the ocean: in consequence, probably, of the creeping manner 

 of their navigation. Homer speaks of 



" All wide Hellespont's unmeasured main." Iliad, b. 24. 



Wern. Club. 



