90 FROM CONSTANTINOPLE 
CHAP. Tumulus, considered, and with reason, as the 
HI. ' 
v» - y .^ Tomb of Jljax. Coming opposite to a sandy- 
bay, which Pliny, speaking of that tomb, ex- 
phcitly mentions as the naval station of the 
Greehs\ we beheld, at a distance, upon the 
Sigean Promontory, those other Tumuli, which 
have been called the Tombs of Achilles and 
Patroclus. Upon a sand bank, advanced into 
the Hellespont, and formed by the deposit of 
the principal river here disembogued, which 
for the present may be designated by its 
modern appellation of Mender, appeared the 
town of Koum-kale. 
Appear- ^ vcrv singular appearance takes place at 
ance caus- j o r i i 
ed by the the mouth of this river : as if it refused to mix 
Waters of 
the Mender, with tlic broad and rapid current of the Helles- 
pont, it exhibits an extensive circular line, 
bounding its pale and yellow water : this line 
is so strongly traced, and the contrast of colour 
between the salt and the fresh water so strik- 
ing, that at first we believed the difference to 
originate in the shallowness of the current, at 
the river's mouth, imperfectly concealing its 
(1) How exactly does this position of the Partus Ach<E<yrum coincide 
with the remark, made by Pliny in the following passage: " Ajace 
ihi sepulto xxx stud, mtervallo a Sigeo, et ipso (sic) in statione classis 
sucer Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. v. cap. 30. torn. I. p. 278. L. Bat. 1635. 
