II 
■^!yo"- 
68 FROM NEAPOLIS, 
CHAP, distance of the ruins of Bistonia (for by this 
name we may now call them) from Cavallo, 
agrees so nearly with that stated in the Jeru- 
salem Itinerary for the interval between Nea- 
poLis and Pyrgis, that we may with good 
reason adopt this latter reading, instead of 
Purdis, in consequence of the turretted appear- 
ance of the ruins ; which remarkably confirms a 
suggestion of JVesseling, in his Notes upon that 
Itinerary^ The city of Bistonia is mentioned 
by Stephanus^; but he takes no notice of the 
lake. The ruins are surrounded by a swamp, 
into which falls one of the two rivers mentioned 
by Herodotus; thence flowing into the Lagoon, 
close to the building. The air of this place is 
of course pestilential during summer. The land 
of the Bistonian territory appeared to us to be 
less cultivated than the rest of the country ; 
owing, perhaps, to the abundance of food sup- 
plied by the fisheries upon the lake^: it is 
(1) In voc. PuRDis. " Pardos vir multo doctissimus ad Ammian. 
legit, nulla tamen addit4 causs^. Mihi Purgis sive Pyrgis non displi- 
ceret, si turres hie fuisse aliunde liqueret." Itinerar. Hierosolymit . 
p, 603. ed. JVesseling. Amst. 1735. 
(2) BI2TI1NIA, iraA./; O^dxtis, a.vo Biffravos xcci KaXXifpo^s t^; tiimu. 
Steph. Byzantin. de Urbib. &c. p. 169. 
(3) Belm mentions a lake which seems to be that now described. 
" Le Lac de Bouron, ou Bistonius, est de grand reuenu au pays. Car 
il y a de fort bonnes pescheries. La mer en cest endroict la ne croist 
