The mediterranean natVkalist 
it took us to traverse the ground that it was 
about 17 1/2 miles or 140 stadia from Sultan Hissar 
to the Meadow, which, when the distance bet- 
ween the station and the ancient city is deducted, 
will leave a total closely accordant with the sup- 
position that the distance stated by Strabo was 
130 stadia. 
We had no time when on the Meadow to search 
for the cave or opening in the ground, which 
Strabo tells us was a subterranean passage lead- 
ing westwards towards Acharaca, and we met no 
one of whom to enquire, save a band of eighteen 
zaptiehs, who had come up from the Cayster 
valley in quest of brigands, the deserted hut on 
the meadow being known as a favourite haunt of 
those gentry. Strabo speaks of this meadow as, 
according to popular belief in his day, the “Asian 
meadow” sung by Homer, and says “they point 
out the heroum of Caystrius and of (a certain) 
Asias, and the Cayster flowing around it. 
"Of storks or cranes or long necked swans Asian meadow 
about the streams of Cayster. Hither and thither they fly 
rejoicing in their wings.” Iliad. II, 461. 
But this tradition is difficult of acceptation, for 
the Meadow is too high in the mountains to have 
attracted waterfowl, and too remote also from the 
Cayster. It is far more probable that Homer 
referred to the plain of the Cayster, or to some 
portion of it, particularly to the low part near 
Jelat and Ephesus, which in winter is a vast 
marsh, where cranes, wild swans, and geese may 
be seen in multitudes at the present day, just as 
described by Homer, and by Virgil (Georg. 1, 383, 
Jftn. VII, 699) in his imitations of his illustrious 
predecessor. It must be understood that the Asian 
meadow received its name from the hero Asias, 
who with Caystrius had a heroum there, and was 
an early king of Lydia, the son of Cotys, son of 
Manes, from whom a tribe in Sardis was called 
Asian (Herod IV, 45). Strabo spent some time in 
his youth at Nysa, as he tells us, studying philo- 
sophy under Aristodemus; we may presume there- 
fore that he visited the Meadow, whither the 
Nysieans resorted to celebrate their festivals, and 
that he w T rote from personal knowledge of the 
spot. But he does not state that the heroum or 
shrine, stood on this meadow, or even near it, but 
simply that it stood on the banks of the Cayster, 
and we may infer that it was visible from the 
Meadow of Nysa. 
245 
Assiminea littorina Delle Chiaie in Malta. 
When collecting A ur indue in the brackish-water 
fish-ponds at Marsa Scirocco in February 1890, I 
was agreably surprised to find a tiny shell in 
considerable numbers under stones washed by 
the water, or under the rotting leaves of the 
Caulinia oceanica strewn on the beach. I could 
not at first find out to what species it belonged 
I therefore sent it for determination to Prof. 
Boettger of Frankfort, who with his usual kind- 
ness quickly answered informing me that it was 
Assiminea littorina Delle Chiaie remarking to me 
that it was not to be expected this species should 
have been found in Malta but rather A. Sieana 
Brugn. On further collecting in the same loca- 
lity I began to doubt if all the Assiminece from 
Marsa Scirocco really belonged to one species and 
my doubts were shared by my friend the Marquis 
of Monterosato of Palermo, who in February 1891 
wrote me that he thought the typical A. littorina 
was wider than the Maltese species, whilst A. 
sieana was altogether bigger. He considered our 
form to be very similar to A. Shotellerii Bourg. 
Not knowing this species I sent a few specimens 
to Prof, von Martens, to have them compared with 
the type in the Berlin Museum. In answer to 
my queries he told me that our species agreed in 
all respects with Philippe’s type which is in the 
Berlin Museum and that he did not think it ne- 
cessary to separated it as a variety. Assiminece are 
generally considered as marine species; in our case 
they are to be found with the Auricula and 
Teuncatellce close to the rocks and stones of the 
shore above high water level and with Setiace on 
the Conferva: floating on the surface of the water 
of the ponds. If must be added that these ponds 
are on the shore and connected with the sea, but 
they receive also the fresh water which drains 
from the surrounding country. 
Alfred Cartjana Gatto. 
The Relationship of the Structure oi 
Rocks to the conditions of their 
Formation. 
By H. J. Johnston Lavis, m.d.,f.g.s., 
These facts, I think, give us the clue to the real 
sequence of phenomena which lead up to, and 
