TO CONSTANTINOPLE. ! 
431 
of Pontus, are two little isles, one upon the chap. 
European, and the other upon the Asiatic side 1 v — 
of the Strait; separated from each other by 
twenty stadia V’ The more antient accounts, 
representing them as sometimes separated, and 
at other times joined together, were satisfac- 
torily explained by TourneforP ; who observed, 
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 points of either resemble insular rocks. 
They are, in fact, each joined to the main land 
by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands 
when this is inundated ; which always happens 
in stormy weather. But it is not certain that 
the isthmus, connecting either of them with the 
continent, was formerly visible. The disclosure 
has been probably owing to that gradual sinking 
of the level of the Black Sea, before noticed. 
The same cause continuing to operate, may 
hereafter lead posterity to marvel what is 
become of the Cyanece ; and this may also 
account for their multiplied appearance in ages 
anterior to the time of Strabo. The main object 
of our visit was not, however, the illustration of 
any antient author, in this particular part of 
(2) Strab. Geogr. lib. vii. p. 463. ed. Oxon, 
(3) Voy. du Lev. Lett. XV. 
