132 PLINT's IfATtrEA.L HISTOET. [Book IL 



sinus in Argolis, and the Tigris^ in Mesopotamia, sink into the 

 earth and burst out again. Substances which are thrown 

 into the fountain of -^sculapius at Athens^ are cast up at 

 the fountain of Phalerum. The river which sinks into the 

 ground in the plaiu of Atinum^ comes up again at the 

 distance of twenty miles, and the Timavus does the same 

 in Aquileia*. 



In the lake Asphaltites, in Judaea, which produces bitumen, 

 no substance will sink, nor in the lake Arethusa^, in the 

 Greater Armenia : in this lake, although it contains nitre, 

 fish are found. In the country of the Salentini, near the 

 town of Manduria, there is a lake^ fuU to the brim, the 

 waters of which are never diminished by what is taken out 

 of it, nor increased by what is added. Wood, which ia 

 thrown into the river of the Cicones^ or into the lake Velinus 

 in Picenum, becomes coated with a stony crust, while in the 

 Surius, a river of Colchis, the whole substance becomes as 

 hard as stone. In the same manner, in the Silarus^, beyond 



^ This is again referred to by our author, vi. 31 ; also by Strabo, and 

 by Seneca, Nat. Qusest. ill. 26. 



2 Pausanias. 



3 The river here referred to is the Tanager, the modem Rio Negro. See 

 the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 439. 



^ From a note in Pomsinet, i. 302, we learn that there has been some 

 doubt respecting the locality of this river. It is mentioned by Virgil, 

 jEn. i. 244, and it forms the subject of Heyne's 7th Excursus, ii. 124 et 

 seq. Virgil also speaks of the Timavus, Ec. viii. 6 ; and Heyne, in a note, 

 gives the following description of it : " Timavus in ora Adrise, non longe 

 nh Aqmleia fluvius ex terra novem fontibus seu capitibus progressus, 

 brevi cursu, in unum alveum coUectus, lato altoque flumine in mare 

 exit." i. 127, 128. 



5 This remark is not to be taken in its full extent ; the water of these 

 lakes contains a large quantity of saline and other substances dissolved 

 in it, and, consequently, has its specific gravity so much increased, that 

 various substances float on it which sink in pure water. 



^ According to Hardouin, tliis is now called the Lake of Andoria, near 

 the town of Casalnuovo ; Lemaire, i. 439. Poinsinet calls it Anduria, 

 i. 303. 



7 The petrifying quality of this river is referred to by Ovid, Met. xv. 

 313, 314 ; Seneca quotes these lines when treating on this subject, Nat. 

 Qusest. iii. 20. 



8 Aristotle, Strabo, and Sihus Italicus, viii. 582, 583, refer to this pro- 

 perty of the Silarus ; but, according to Brotier, it does not appear to be 

 known to the present inhabitants of the district through which it flows. 

 Lemaire, i. 440. 



