5 7 4 PROBABLE CHANGES NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE DNIEPER. 
which it would require an assiduous personal examination to determine 1 . For, 
however the produce of the rivers may have so largely encroached upon the limited 
internal seas which subtend Russia in Europe, both on the north as well as on 
the south (St. Petersburgh being, doubtless, in great part built upon river silt 
of modern date), we must also look to elevation as a cause, which has actually 
1 We are indebted to the researches of Professor Henry Malden, of University College, London 
and his friendly communication of them, for our acquaintance with this curious point, which bears so 
directly on modern geological or ancient historical changes. Referring us to Herodotus (B. iv. cc. 16, 
24, 54, 55, 56 and 76), wherein that author gives a minute account of Scythia and the Scythians, partly 
from his own observations, partly from inquiries instituted in the country itself, the learned Professor, 
in a letter addressed to Mr. Murchison, enters at some length into an analysis of the interpretation which 
can be put upon the words of the historian, who during his travels had certainly been at the Greek co- 
lony of Olbia on the Bug. Though there is internal evidence in his work, that Herodotus travelled over 
the country between that river (Hypaxis) and the Dnieper, there is no indication of his having crossed 
the latter, nor of his having sailed along the coast, eastward of its mouth, since he speaks of the race- 
course of Achilles in such a manner, as to show that he had not seen it, whilst he does not seem to have 
been aware of the peninsulated form of the Crimea, nor to have had any accurate knowledge of the 
isthmus of Perecop. He appears, indeed, to have had an exaggerated notion of the extent to which the 
Dnieper was navigable (to Gerhi 140 days’ sail, the place of sepulture of the Scythian kings), unless 
we suppose that since his day the waters of that stream have been greatly lessened, and its cataracts 
formed by elevation of the land. Herodotus speaks positively of the river Gerrlius being parted off from 
the Borystlienes at that part of the country up to which the latter river was known ; whence flowing 
into the Hypacyris, it formed the boundary between the pastoral and agricultural Scythians. Without 
following Professor Malden through his elaborate inquiry, in which he endeavours to reconcile certain 
apparent inconsistencies in the account of the great historian, we agree with him, that it is by no means 
improbable, that in a former period, the Borystlienes may have had a larger delta, and two mouths, 
though now confined to one, — an opinion also entertained by that sound geographer, Major Rennell. 
Professor Malden further speculates upon the eastern stream of such a delta having been the Gerrhus ; 
whilst the rivers Panticapes and Hypacyris, cited by Herodotus as flowing out of lakes between the Bory- 
sthenes and the Gerrhus, accord well (he says) with the notion of a great former delta. As, however, 
it appears that the brief descriptions of Strabo are not inconsistent with the present state of the country, 
the Gerrhus of Herodotus may, after all, be the same river alluded to by Ptolemy under that name, and 
which some persons have supposed to be the present Molotchina, which falls into the Sea of Azof. 
Regretting that, with our slight personal knowledge of this tract, we cannot offer to our learned friend 
any fresh physical knowledge to enable him to decide on the relative merits of certain passages in history, 
we may say, that apparently no geographical feature exists which can have prevented the Dnieper from 
having formerly had two mouths, the easternmost of which proceeding from the spot named Kakofka 
may have flowed due south either by Katlantchak into the Gulf of Perecop, or into what is now the 
Putrid Sea, whilst the other branch passed, as at present, by Kherson to the west. However difficult it 
may be to reconcile all the statements of Herodotus, his general assertion, that streams east of the Bug 
were navigable to ships for some distance from their mouths, where no rivers are now to be seen which 
are even accessible in boats, ought to induce us to suppose, that since his time desiccation may have taken 
place to a considerable amount. 
