CLARKE f S T&AYEtf* 
territory; and the marks of such ao inundation, caused by the 
branches of trees, reeds, and rushes, left by the water on the 
land, were visible a considerable distance from its banks, at the 
time we passed. It has been usual to consider this river bear¬ 
ing every character of the Scamander, as the Simois of Homer, 
for which 1 can find no authority whatsoever :* indeed, there is 
positive evidence to the contrary. All the principal battles of 
Homer were fought either on the banks of the Simois, or very 
near it; that is to say, within the Simoisian plain. Homer, enu¬ 
merating the rivers brought to act against the Grecian rampart^ 
thus characterizes the Simois: 
--—Thy stream, 
“ Simois, whose banks with helmets and with shields 
“ Were strew’d, and chiefs of origin divine.” 
If then we can point out any other passage which decides 
the position of the Scamander with regard to the Simois, we 
may identify the two rivers, without any reference to the cir¬ 
cumstances of their origin, merely by the geography of the coun¬ 
try. Such a passage occurs in the eleventh book of the Iliad, 
where it is recorded of Hector, that 
-——on the left of all the war, 
“ He fought beside Scamander”- 
The Scamander being therefore on the left of the Trojan army, 
and the battle in the Simoisian plain, having in front the Gre¬ 
cian camp and the sea, the nature of the territory is sufficient 
to decide the relative position of the two rivers. The scene of 
action can only be reconciled with the plain of Calljfat Osmack , 
bounded on the left, to a person facing the Hellespont, by the 
Mender ;f which river as necessarily is proved to have been the 
Scamander of Homer. 
* It is quite amusing to observe the freedom of citation and palpable errors, which 
have been tolerated. In Mons. Chevalier’s Description of the Plain of Troy , we find 
the author (p. 3 .) supporting the following observations, by references to the test of 
Homer : 1 1 .shall distinguish the impetuous course of the rapid Simois, and the limpid 
stream of the divine Scamander.” In the margin, the reader is directed to the 12th 
book of the Iliad, v. 21, 22; the 21st, v. 307 ; the 7th, v* 329; and also to the 12th, v. 
21, &c. for authorities concerning the epithets thus given to the tworivers. If he 
takes for granted the fidelity of M. Chevalier, it. is all very well; but the slightest ex¬ 
amination of the passages referred to, dispels the illusion. Nothing is there said, 
.either of impetuous and rapid Simois, or of the limpid stream of the Scamander. Yet 
the same author had found in Bayle’s Dictionary, under the article ‘ Scamander, ’ (see 
p, 48) that Julia, the daughter of Augustus, met with the fate of Mr. Gell’s Journals, 
which we also narrowly escaped, in fordiDg the torrent of the Mender. 
f Mr. Wood (Essay on Homer, p. 89.) was thoroughly impressed with the necessity 
of admitting the Simois to be on the eastern side of the Scamander, by the remarks 
made upon Mr. Pope’s map, in which the engraver had reversed the position, not 
only 01 the rivers, but also of the two promontories, Rhaetewn and Sigeum; ” so 
that” says he, “ the Scamander runs on that side of Troy which belongs to the Simois” 
