26 



Tower, was repaired in 1788. It is ninety-two 

 feet high, its walls are four feet and a half thick, 

 and its construction clearly proves, that it was 

 built by the Romans. An inscription discovered 

 near it's foundations, a copy of which Mr. Laborde 

 obligingly gave me, informs us, that this pharos 

 was constructed by Caius Sevius Lupus, archi- 

 tect of the city of Aqua Flavia (Chaves), and 

 that it was dedicated to Mars. Why is the Iron 

 Tower called in the country by the name of 

 Hercules ? Was it built by the Romans on the 

 ruins of a Greek, or Phoenician edifice ? Strabo, 

 indeed, affirms, that Galiicia, the country of the 

 Callaeci, had been peopled by Greek colonies. 

 According to an extract from the geography of 

 Spain, by Asclepiades the Myrlsean, an ancient 

 tradition stated, that the companions of Her- 

 cules had settled in these countries*. 



I made the necessary observations to assure 

 myself of the rate of going of Lewis Berthoud's 

 time-keeper, and I had the satisfaction to find, 

 that it had not changed it's diurnal retardation, 

 notwithstanding the shocks it had met with in 

 our journey from Madrid to Corunna. This cir- 

 cumstance was the more important, as much 



* Strabo, ed. Cassaub. Lutet. Par. 1620, Lib. iii, p. 157. 

 The Phoenicians and Greeks visited the coasts of Galiicia 

 (Gallcecia) to trade for tin, which they drew from this country 

 as well as from the Cassiterides. Sirabo f Lib. iii, p. 147. 

 Plin. Lib. xxxiv, c. 16. 



