fivers; but if one be compared with another, the preference mult be given to the Nile, into which no stream nor fountain enters. The reason why in the two oppofite feasons of the year the Danube is uniformly the fame, feems to me to be this:-In the winter it is at its full natural height, or perhaps fomewhat more, at which feason there is in the regions through which it paffes abundance of fnow, but very little rain; but in the fummer all this fnow is diffolved, and emptied into the Danube, which to gether with frequent and heavy rains greatly augment it. But in proportion as the body of its waters is thus multiplied, are the exhalations of the fummer fun. The refult of this action and reaction on the Danube, is that its waters are con ftantly of the fame depth. " Thus of the rivers which flow through Scy thia, the Danube is the firft; next to this is the Tyres, which rifing in the north from an immenfe marfh, divides Scythia from Neuris. At the mouth of this river thofe Greeks live who are known by the name of the Tyritæ. LII. The third is the Hypanis; this comes 230 from Scythia, rifing from an immenfe lake, round which are found wild white horses, and which is properly enough called the mother of the Hypanis. This river through a space of five days journey 6 The Hypanis.]-There were three rivers of this name: One in Scythia, one in the Cimmerian Bofphorus, and a third in journey from its firft rife, is small, and its waters are fweet, but from thence to the fea, which is a journey of four days more, it becomes exceedingly bitter. This is occafioned by a small fountain, which it receives in its paffage, and which is of fo very bitter a quality, that it infects this river, Exou though by no means contemptible in point of size: 523, this fountain rifes in the country of the ploughing Scythians, and of the Alazones. It takes the kes the name of the place where it fprings, which in the Scythian tongue is Exampæus, correfponding in Greek to the Sacred Ways." In the district of the Alazones the streams of the Tyres and the Hypanis have an inclination towards each other, but they foon separate again to a confiderable distance. 2: 2572 LIII. The fourth river, and the largest next to the Danube, is the Boryfthenes 2. In my opinion in India, the largest of that region, and the limits of the con 23quefts of Alexander the Great.This laft was fometimes called the Hypafis.-T. 61 Bitter a quality.]-This circumftance refpecting the Hypanis is thus mentioned by Ovid :--- Quid non et Scythicis Hypanis a montibus ortus Qui fuerat dulcis falibus vitiatur amaris. It is mentioned alfo by Pomponius Mela, book ii. c. 1.-7. 1 γ. * Herodotus diftinguifhes the Σκύθαι άροτήρες, from the Σκύθαι 196 this river is more productive, not only than all the rivers of Scythia, but than every other in the world, except the Egyptian Nile. The Nile, it must be confeffed, difdains all comparison; the Boryfthenes nevertheless affords moft agreeable and excellent pafturage, and contains great abundance of the more delicate fish. Although it flows in the midst of many turbid rivers, its waters are perfectly clear and fweet; its banks are adorned by the richest harvests, and in those places where corn is not fown the grafs grows to a furprifing height; at its mouth a large mass of falt is formed `of itself. It produces alfo a fpecies of large fish, which is called the Antacæus; thefe, which have no prickly fins, the inhabitants falt: it poffeffes various other things which deferve our admiration. The course of the stream may be purfued as far as the country called Gerrhus, through a voyage of forty days, and it is known to flow from the north. But of the remoter places through which it paffes, no one can fpeak with certainty; it feems probable that it runs towards the district of the Scythian husbandmen, through a pathlefs defert. For the fpace of a ten days journey thefe Scythians inhabit. its banks. The fources of this river only, like thofe of the Nile, are to me unknown, as I believe they are to every other Greek. This river, as it approaches the fea, is joined by the Hypanis, and they have both the fame termination: the neck of land betwixt thefe two ftreams is called the Hippoleon promontory, in which a temple is Q3 erected 252 ૨૩૦ MEL POMENE 63 erected to Ceres 3 Beyond this temple as far as the Hypanis, dwell the Boryfthenites.-But on this fub25% ject enough has been faid. 2566 746 .: LIV. Next to the above, is a fifth river, called Fry1.294 LV. The fixth river is called the Hypacyris this, rifing from a lake, and paffing through the midit of the Scythian Nomades, empties itself into the fea near the town of Carcinitis 64. In its course it bounds to the right Hylæa, and what is called the courfe of Achilles. LVI. The name of the feventh river is the Gerrhus a it takes it name from the place Gerrhus, near which it feparates itfelf from the Boryfthenes, and where this latter river is firft known. In its paffage to 63 To Ceres.]--Some manufcripts read to "Ceres," others to the Mother;" by this latter expreffion Ceres must be understood, and not Vefta, as Gronovius would have it. In his obfervation, that the Scythians were acquainted neither with Ceres nor Cybele, he was perfectly right; but he ought to have remembered that the Boryfthenites or Olbiopolite were of Greek origin, and that they had retained many of the cuftoms and ufages of their ancestors.-Larcher. 64 Carcinitis.]-Many are of opinion that this is what is now called Golfo di Mofcovia,-T. wards 250 256-2613 Gord wards the fea, it divides the Scythian Nomades 185-261 LVII. The eighth river is called the Tanais 65 ther river, called the Hyrgis. 2. This LVIII. The Scythians have thus the advantage of all these celebrated rivers. The grafs which this country produces is of all that we know the fullest of moisture, which evidently appears from the diffection of their cattle. LIX. We have fhewn that this people poffefs the greatest abundance; their particular laws and 65 Tanais.]-This river is now called the Don. According to Plutarch, in his Treatife of celebrated Rivers, it derived its name from a young man called Tanis, who avowing an hatred of the female fex, was by Venus caufed to feel an unnatural paffion for his own mother; and he drowned himself in conse quence in this river. It was alfo called the river of the Amazons; and, as appears from an old fcholiaft on Horace, was fometimes confounded with the Danube.-It divides Europe from Afia. Ευρωπην δ' Ασίης Ταναις δια μεσσον ορίζει. Dionyfius. See alfo Quintus Curtius. Tanais, Europam et Afiam me- 148 |