Chap. 27.] ACCOUNT OF COXTNTEIES, ETC. 339 



islands which are to be found between the mouths of the 

 later we have already mentioned ^ Before the Borysthenes 

 is Achillea^ previously referred to, known also by the names 

 of Leuce and Macaron^. Researches which have been made 

 at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles 

 from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fifty from 

 the island of Peuce. It is about ten miles in circumference. 

 The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cepha- 

 lonnesos, Rhosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the 

 Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed 

 by many writers that all the interior^ seas take their rise in 

 this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of 

 Grades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an 

 improbable one — the fact that the tide is always running 

 out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb. 

 ^ We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer por- 

 tions* of Europe. After passing the Eiphaean mountains we 



* In C. 24 of the present Book. 



* Mentioned in the last Chapter as the " Island of Achilles." 



* From the Greek fxaKapuv, " (The island) of the Blest." It was also 

 called the " Island of the Heroes." 



* Meaning all the inland or Mediterranean seas. 



* As the whole of Pliny's description of the northern shores of Europe 

 is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than tran- 

 scribe the learned remarks of M.Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajas- 

 Bon's Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, " Before entering on 

 the discussion of this portion of Pliny's geography, let us here observe, once 

 for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous 

 hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or 

 a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffre- 

 folds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of 

 Bubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity 

 of these suppositions is proved by — I. The impossibility of the ancients 

 ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large 

 vessels, the compass, and others of those appliances, aided by which Eu- 

 ropean skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas. 

 II. The immense lacvmse which would be fovmd to exist in the •descrip- 

 tions of these distant seas and shores : for not a word do we find about 

 those numerous archipelagos which are found 8(^attered throughout the 

 North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the nionberless seas and 

 fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon 

 the local phsenomena of these spots. The Norlih Cape belongs to the 

 second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half. 

 Is it likely that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable 

 phenomenon, well known to the Eomans by virtue of their astronomical 



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