76 
PLINTHS NATURAL HISTOBT. 
[Book VI. 
support all weighty substances thrown into them, and exhale 
nitrous vapours. This lake produces only one kind of fish, 
which, however, never enter the current of the river in its 
passage through the lake : and in a similar manner, the 
fish of the Tigris will never swim out of its stream into the 
waters of the lake. Distinguishable from the lake, both by 
the rapidity and the colour of its waters, the tide of the river is 
hurried along ; after it has passed through and arrived at 
Mount Taurus, it disappears in a cavern of that mountain, 
and passing beneath it, bursts forth on the other side ; 
the spot bears the name of Zoroande.^^ That the waters on 
either side of the mountain are the same, is evident from the 
fact, that bodies thrown in on the one side will reappear on the 
other. It then passes through another lake, called Thospites, 
and once more burying itself in the earth, reappears, after 
running a distance of twenty- two miles, in the vicinity of 
I^ymphseum.^^ Claudius Caesar informs us that, in the district 
of Arrene^^ it flows so near to the river Arsanias,^^ that when 
their waters swell they meet and flow together, but without, 
however, intermingling. For those of the Arsani, as he says, 
being lighter, float on the surface of the Tigris for a distance 
of nearly four miles, after which they separate, and the Arsa- 
nias flows into the Euphrates. The Tigris, after flowing through 
Armenia and receiving the well-known rivers Parthenias and 
]^icephorion, separates the Arabian Orei^- from the Adiabeni, 
and then forms by its course, as previously mentioned, the 
country of Mesopotamia. After traversing the mountains of 
the Gordysei,^^ it passes round Apamea,^* a town of Mesene, one 
Seneca, however, in his Qucest. Nat. B. vi., represents the Tigris here 
as gradually drying up and becoming gradually smaller, till it disappears. 
This spot is considered by Parisot to be the modern city of Betlis. 
A spot where liquid bitumen or naphtha was found. 
Or probably Arzarene, a province of the south of Armenia, situate on 
the left bank of the Tigris. It derived its name from the lake Arsene, or 
the town Arzen, situate on this lake. It is comprehended in the modern 
Pashalik of Dyar Bekr. 
Now called the Myrad-chai. See B. v. c. 24. Bitter considers it to 
be the southern arm of the Euphrates. 
^2 Or Aroei, as Littre suggests. See Xote to c. 30 in p, 71. 
^3 See c. 17 of the present Book. 
^ The site of this place seems to be unknown. It has been remarked 
that it is difficult to explain the meaning of this passage of Pliny, or to 
determine the probable site of Apamea. \ 
