G20 
SCYLLA AND CIIARYBDIS. 
own skill, contemn or neglect this assistance, however great his 
ability or experience, he would run the most imminent risk of being 
shipwrecked. 
“ In this agitation and conflict of the w'aters, forced one way by 
the current, and driven in a contrary direction by the wind', it is use- 
less to throw' the line to discover the depth of the bottom, the violence 
of the current frequently carrying the lead almost on the surface 
the w'ater. The strongest cables, though some feet in circumference, 
break like small cords. Should two or three anchors be thrown out, 
the bottom is so rocky that they either take no hold, or, if they should, 
are soon loosened by the violence of the w'aves. Every expedient 
aflorded by the art of navigation, though it might succeed in navigating 
a ship in other parts of the Mediterranean, or even the tremendous 
ocean, is useless here. The only means of avoiding being dashed 
against the rooks, or driven upon the sands, in the midst of this furious 
contest of the winds and waves, is to have recourse to the skill and 
courage of the Mesinese seamen.” 
“ Charybdis is situated within the strait, in that part of the sea 
which lies between a projection of land named Punta Secca, and 
another projection on which stands the tower called Lanterna, or the 
Light-house, a light being placed at its top to guide vessels which may 
enter the harbour by night. Every writer who has hitherto described 
Charybdis, has supposed it to be a whirlpool ; but this is a mistake, 
as Spallanzani has completely proved. Charybdis is distant from 
the shore of Messina about seven hundred and fifty feet, and is called 
by the people of the country Calofaro ; not from the agitation of the 
W'aves, as some have supposed, but from the beautiful tow'er, and 
from the light-house erected near for the guidance of vessels. The 
phenomenon of the Calofaro is observable when the current is descend- 
ing ; for when the current sets in from the north, the pilots call it 
the descending rema, or current ; and when it runs from the south, 
the ascending rema. The current ascends or descends at the rising 
or settitig of the moon, and continues for six hours. In the interval 
between ascent and descent, there is a calm which lasts at least a quarter 
of an hour, but no longer than an hour. Afterwards, at the rising or 
setting of the moon, the current enters from the north, making various 
incidents with the shore, and at length reaches the Calofaro. This 
delay sometimes continues two hours ; sometimes it immediately fails 
into the Calofaro, and then experience has taught that it is ‘a certain 
token of bad weather.” 
When our author observed Charybdis from the shore, it appeared 
like a group of tumultuotis waters ; which group, as he approached, 
became more extensive and more agitated. He w'as carried to the 
edge, where he stopped some time to make the requisite observations, 
and was then convinced, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that what he 
saw was by no means a vortex or whirlpool. Hydrologists teach us, 
that by a whirlpool in a running water, we are to understand that 
circular course which takes in a certain circumference, and that this 
course of revolution generates in the middle a hollow inverted cone, 
of a greater or less depth, the internal sides of which have a spiral 
motion. But Spallanzani perceived nothing of this kind in the Calo- 
