18 



PYTHAGOREAN SYSTEM. 



[Ch. II. 



3. Valleys have been excavated by running water, and 

 floods have washed down hills into the sea."* 



4. Marshes have become dry ground. 



5. Dry lands have been changed into stagnant pools. 



6. During earthquakes some springs have been closed up ? 

 and new ones have broken out. Eivers have deserted their 



* 



channels, and have been re-born elsewhere ; as the Erasinus 

 in Greece, and Mysus in Asia. 



7. The waters of some rivers, formerly sweet, have become 



t 



mam 



the 



wt 



as in the case of 



Antissa joined to Lesbos, Pharos to Egypt, &c. 



9. Peninsulas have been divided from the main land, and 

 have become islands, as Leucadia ; and according to tradition 

 Sicily, the sea having carried away the isthmus. 



10. 



and has been submerged by ( 

 Helice and Buris, for exam 



the sea, with their walls inclined. 



11. Plains have been upheaved into hills by the confined 

 air seeking vent, as at Troezene in the Peloponnesus. 



periods. 



temperature of some 

 The water of others 



are inflammable + 



-i- 



Some 



amber and gold, others 



mind 



an exciting, others a soporific effect. 



13. There are streams which have a petrifying power, and 

 convert the substances which they touch into marble. 



14. Extraordinary medicinal and deleterious effects are 

 produced by water of different lakes and springs. § 



15. Some rocks and islands, after floating and having been 



* < Eluvie mons est deductus in *quor,' J That is probably an allusi on ^to the 



escape of inflammable gas, like tliat 

 the district of Baku, west of the Cas- 

 pian ; at Pietramala, in the Tuscan 

 Apennines ; and several other places. 



8 Many of those described seem 

 fanciful fictions, like the exaggerate* 

 virtues still attributed to some mineral 



v. 267. The meaning of this last verse 

 is somewhat obscure; but taken with 

 the context, may be supposed to allude 

 to the abrading power of floods, torrents, 



and rivers. 



t The impregnation from new mineral 

 springs, caused by earthquakes in vol- 

 canic countries, is perhaps here alluded waters, 

 to. 





