338 
MIITY's KATtJRAL HISTORY. 
[Book IT. 
them on to tlielr neiglibours, and so from one to tlie other, 
till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this 
custom, even, in time fell into disuse. 
The length of Sarmatia, Scythia, and Taurica, and of the 
whole of the region which extends from the river Borj- 
sthenes, is, according to Agrippa, 980 miles, and its breadth 
717, I am of opinion, however, that in this part of the 
earth all estimates of measurement are exceedingly doubtful. 
CHAP. 27. THE ISLANDS OF THE ETJXII^E. THE ISLAOTS 
OE THE NOETHERK OCEAN. 
But now, in conformity with the plan which I originally ' 
proposed, the remaining portions of this gulf must be de- 
scribed. As for its seas, we have already made mention of 
them. 
(13.) The Hellespont has no islands belonging to Europe 
that are worthy of mention. In the Euxine there are, at a 
distance of a mile and a half from the European shore, and 
' of fourteen from the mouth of the Strait, the two Cyanaean^ 
islands, by some called the Symplegades^, and stated in fabu- 
lous story to have run the one against the other ; the reason 
being the circumstance that they are separated by so short 
an interval, that while to those who enter the Euxine opposite 
to them they appear to be two distinct islands, but if viewed 
in a somewhat oblique direction they have the appearance of 
becoming gradually united into one. On this side of the 
Ister there is the single island^ of the Apolloniates, eighty 
miles from the Thracian Bosporus ; it was from this place 
that M. Lucullus brought the Capitoline^ Apollo. Those 
^ These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at 
the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople. 
2 From avv and TrXj^y?), "a striking together." Tournefort has ex- 
plained the ancient story of these islands running together, by remarking 
that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is 
disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different 
pointg of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the mainland 
by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in 
stormy weather. 
3 Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboh), mentioned in 
C. 18 of the present Book, was situate. 
* So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the CapitoL It 
was tliirty cubits in height. 
