Chap. 27.] ACCOTOT OP COraTEIES, ETC. 
339 
islands wliicli are to be found between the moutbs of the 
Ister we have already mentioned ^ Before the Borysthenes 
is Achillea^ previously referred to, known also by the names 
of Leuce and Macaron^. Eesearches which have been made 
at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles 
from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fifty from 
the island of Pence. It is about ten miles in circumference. 
The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cepha- 
lonnesos, E^hosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the 
Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed 
by many writers that all the interior^ seas take their rise in 
this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of 
Grades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an 
improbable one — the fact that the tide is always running 
out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb. 
"We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer por- 
tions^ of Europe. After passing the Eiphsean mountains we 
^ In C. 24 of the present Book. 
^ Mentioned in the last Chapter as the " Island of AchiUes." 
' From the Greek fjiaKapojv, " (The island) of the Blest." It was also 
called the " Island of the Heroes." 
^ Meaning aU the inland or Mediterranean seas. 
^ As the whole of Phny's description of the northern shores of Europe 
is replete with difficidties and obscurities, we cannot do better than tran- 
scribe the learned remarks of M.Parisot, theGreographical Editor of Ajas- 
son's Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, " Before entering on 
the discussion of this portion of Pliny's geography, let us here observe, once 
for all, that we shah not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous 
hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or 
a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffre- 
felds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of 
Bubeas, and the Sea of Grreenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity 
of these suppositions is proved by — I. The impossibility of the ancients 
ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large 
vessels, the compass, and others of those appUances, aided by which Eu- 
ropean skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas. 
II. The immense lacunae which would be found to exist in the. descrip- 
tions of these distant seas and shores : for not a word do we find about 
those numerous archipelagos which are found s(^atter<;d throughout the 
North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and 
fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon 
the local phsenomena of these spots. The Noriih Cape belongs to the 
second polar chmate, the longest day there being two months and a half. 
Is it hkcly that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable 
phsenomenon, well known to the Romans by virtue of their astronomical 
z 2 
