S8 On the supposed Change 



not whether the water in the strait of the sea of Azof' 

 annually congeals in winter into firm and solid ice, or 

 whether the fact mentioned, was owing to an unusual 

 occurrence, and related for that very reason. The cir- 

 cumstances naturally lead us to conclude that the ice in 

 that year was stronger than usual, and that the -winter 

 was uncommonly severe. 



Strabo then proceeds to state from Eratosthenes, the 

 story of a brazen cup or vessel which had been burst by 

 the freezing of water, and as an evidence of the fact, was 

 preserved in the temple of Esculapius at Panticape, a 

 town on the Cimmerian Bosphorus. He cites the in- 

 scription on the vessel of which the following is a trans- 

 lation. " If any man disbelieves what events have ta- 

 ken place among us, let him view this vessel and learn 

 the truth — This vessel has been deposited here by Stra- 

 tius, the priest, not as a gift to the gods, but as an evi- 

 dence of a very rigorous ivmter.^'' ^xeii^am t^.Byxxa.'J The 

 translator has rendered these words by immensi Jrigorisy 

 which would describe severe cold in general. But such 

 mistakes of the meaning of original writers are the 

 sources of many false theories. The Greek ze^F^ will 

 not justify this translation — It signifies -winter^ and in 

 connection with great, evidently denotes, in this place, 

 an unusual xvinter. Strabo indeed speaks of the freezing 

 of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, in general terms, and of 

 large fishs' being dug out of ice, where they had been 

 caught in nets ; and if this should on inquiry be found 

 to be the fact now, we ought not to be surprised, as that 

 strait is in the latitude of Quebec. Severe as the cold 

 was, the Greeks opened a communication with the na- 

 tions on the north of the Euxine, and built cities on the 

 coast, among which were Panticape, on the strait, and 

 Olbitty on the Boristhenes near the mouth of the Hypa- 

 nis, or Bog. From what circumstance, this town re- 

 ceived its name, I knov/ not ; but it signifies happy or 



the pleasant residence Strabo, lib.l. U'Anville Anc. 



Geog. ix. 



That Germany would not produce fruit trees, at the 

 christian era, must not be believed ; for vines were cul- 

 tivated in Gaul, as far nordi as the territory of the Se- 



