132 
plint's katueal histoet. 
[Book II. 
sinus in Argolis, and the Tigris^ in Mesopotamia, sink into tlie 
earth and burst out again. Substances which are thrown 
into the fountain of ^sculapius at Athens^ are cast up at 
the fountain of Phalerum. The river which sinks into the 
ground in the plain of Atinum^ comes up again at the 
distance of twenty miles, and the Timavus does the same 
in Aquileia^. 
In the lake Asphaltites, in J udsea, which produces bitumen, 
no substance will sink, nor in the lake Arethusa^, in the 
Grreater Armenia : in this lake, although it contains nitre, 
fish are found. In the country of the Salentini, near the 
town of Manduria, there is a lake^ full to the brim, the 
waters of which are never diminished by what is taken out 
of it, nor increased by what is added. Wood, which is 
thrown into the river of the Cicones'', or into the lake Yelinus 
in Picenum, becomes coated with a stony crust, while in the 
Surius, a river of Colchis, the whole substance becomes as 
hard as stone. In the same manner, in the Silarus^, beyond 
^ This is again referred to by our author, vi. 31 ; also by Strabo, and 
by Seneca, Nat. Qugest. iii. 26. 
2 Pausanias. 
3 The river here referred to is the Tanager, the modern Eio Negro. See 
the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 439. 
From a note in Pomsinet, i. 302, we learn that there has been some 
doubt respecting the locahty of this river. It is mentioned by Yirgil, 
^n. i. 244, and it forms the subject of Heyne's 7th Excursus, ii. 124 et 
seq. Yirgil also speaks of the Timavus, Ec. viii. 6 ; and Heyne, in a note, 
gives the following description of it : " Timavus in ora Adrise, non longe 
ab Aquileia fluvius ex terra novem fontibus seu capitibus progressus, 
brevi cursu, in unum alveum collectus, lato altoque flumine in mare 
exit." i. 127, 128. 
^ This remark is not to be taken in its full extent ; the water of these 
lakes contains a large quantity of saline and other substances dissolved 
in it, and, consequently, has its specific gravity so much increased, that 
various substances float on it which sink in pure water. 
6 According to Hardouin, this is now called the Lake of Andoria, near 
the town of Casalnuovo j Lemaire, i. 439. Poinsinet calls it Anduria, 
i. 303. 
7" The petrifying quahty of this river is referred to by Ovid, Met. xv. 
313, 314 ; Seneca quotes these lines when treating on tliis subject, Nat. 
Quaest. iii. 20. 
8 Aristotle, Strabo, and Silius Itahcus, viii. 582, 583, refer to this pro- 
perty of the Silarus ; but, according to Brotier, it does not appear to be 
known to tlie present inhabitants of the district tln-ough which it flows. 
Lemaire, i. 440. 
