TO THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS. 65 
two causes; first, from want of harmony among chap. 
those authors whose writings we adopt as ' ' 
guides; secondly, from our ignorance of the 
geography of the country. Not a single map 
has yet been published with any accurate 
representation. Our only guide to conduct us 
in our approach to the Bosporus 4 , was the large 
Basil edition of Pliny, a folio volume, presented 
to us by Mr. Kovalenshy of Taganrog; a most 
unexpected acquisition in the plains of Tahtary, 
According to the text of that author, we had 
every reason to believe we were not far from 
the situation of the antient town of Cimmerium ; 
and in this conjecture we were probably right. 
At the foot of a small mountain, near the 
northern embouchure of the Kuban, we came to 
a station called Temroolc. This place may be 
(4) According to every Greek text, particularly tliat of Strabo , it 
should he written BOSflOFOS, implying “o passage for Oxen j" but all 
the Latin geographers write Posi’HOK c s. It seems probable that the 
Original appellation was derived from onJOOTOI, the most antient 
name of Venus, whose fane was upon these shores. Hie name of the 
Bosporus of Thrace , according to Eustathius, in his Commentary on 
Dionysius, (See Or. Ed. p. 138,) was a corruption of «t>n2>I>OPION; but 
perhaps the term was first taken, rather from the Light- Towers, or the 
Volcanic Fires, common to both the Straits, than from the origin he has 
assigned. The change of into B was common ; as BIAinnoS for 
•hlAinnos, BP-rrES for OPTrES, BEPONIKH for ■KEPONIKH, and 
balaena for OAAAINA. 
