482 
pliny's natueal history. [BookXXXL 
wMle the margin is clothed with a green herbaceous plant of 
a peculiar species. In Macedonia, not far from the tomb of 
the Poet Euripides, is the confluence of two streams, the water 
of one of which is extremely wholesome, that of the other 
fatal. 
CHAP. 20. WATERS WHICH PETRIFY, THEMSELYES, OR CAUSE OTHER 
OBJECTS TO PETRIFY. 
AtPerperena,^^ there is a spring which petrifies^^ the ground 
wherever it flows, the same being the case also, with the hot 
Vv^aters at JEdepsus, in Eubcea ; for there, wherever the stream 
falls, the rocks are continually increasing in height. At Eury- 
menee,^^ chaplets, when thrown into the waters of a certain foun- 
tain there, are turned to stone. At Colossae there is a river, into 
the water of which if bricks®^ are thrown, when taken out they 
are found changed into stone. In the mines of Scyros, the trees 
petrify that are watered by the river, branches and all. In 
the caverns of Mount Corycus, the drops of water that trickle 
down the rocks become hard in the form of a stone.^^ At 
Mieza, too, in Macedonia, the water petrifies as it hangs from 
the vaulted roofs of the rocks ; but at Corycus it is only when 
it has fallen that it becomes hard. 
In other caverns, again, the water petrifies both ways,^^ and 
so forms columns ; as we find the case in a vast grotto at Phau- 
sia, a town of the Chersonesus®^ of the Ehodians, the columns 
of which are tinted with various colours. These instances will 
suffice for the present. 
CHAP. 21. (3.) THE WHOLESOMEJsTESS OF WATERS. 
It is a subject of enquiry among medical men, Avhich kind 
of water is the most beneficial. They condemn, and with 
justice, all stagnant, sluggish, waters, and are of opinion that 
running water is the best, being rendered lighter and more 
^1 A town of Mysia, south of Adramyttium. 
As Ajasson remarks, numerous instances are known of this at the 
present day. Pliny, however, does not distinguish the incrusting springs 
from the petrifying springs. 
In Thessaly, according to Hecatseus. 
'^Lateres.^' He m.eans unhurnt bricks, probably. 
He alludes to stalactites and stalagmites. 
®^ Both on the roof and on the floor. 
In Caria, opposite Rhodes. 
