With respect, however, to the identity of the Isle of Serpents with Leuce, or the island of Achilles, when we consider the expressions of various ancient writers, denoting that it was close off the northern mouth of the Danube, though fairly out in the sea; and when we find that the Isle of Serpents is in a direct line, half a degree of longitude (by the chart) from the coast as it at present exists, a coast too that, in all probability, as we shall presently have occasion to mention, has, according to the usual progress of all deltas, gained upon the sea, we cannot help hesitating in giving our assent to those who confidently state them to be the same island; and we endeavour to look for Leuce, if it still exists as an island, nearer to the shore.
Dr. Clarke, who saw the island, estimates it at near one mile in length, and less than half a mile in breadth; but in a very few pages afterwards, he says, that, according to Philostratus, it is 'thirty stadia, or three miles and three-quarters in length,' and that 'this account corresponds with its appearance,' as he saw it; although he had so recently estimated it at about a quarter of that length! He says, too, that 'a part of its history, considered by Scymnus Chius as being the most marvellous, was, that the main land could not thence be discerned, although distant only forty stadia, or five miles.' But even if this statement of what Scymnus Chius says were correct[1], how, we may ask, does a distance of five miles, even supposing the coast to have remained unaltered, correspond with half a degree of longitude under the latitude of 45° 15′, which must involve a distance of more than twenty-four miles?
Perhaps we ought not to lay too great stress upon the fact that the aspect of the Isle of Serpents, as represented by those on board the Blonde, is not strictly such as to entitle it to the appellation of white; being a cliff of moderate height, with the land in the centre, of a somewhat conical shape, and green; because, at the time of year when they were there, or if the birds had altogether
- ↑ The passage of Scymnus Chius is at verse 40 of the Fragments in vol. ii. of the Oxford Edition of the Geographers—
So that the distance is called four hundred stadia, instead of forty, as Dr. C. quotes it. Of Demetrius, Scymnus Chius elsewhere says—
—μετ᾽ αὐτὴν (sc. Πέυκην) εἶτα πελάγια κειμένη
Ἀχιλλέως νῆσος·
ἔχει δε πλῆθος χειροήθες ὀρνέων,
θέαν θ᾽ ἱεροπρεπῆ τοῖς ἀφικνουμένοις.
οὐ δυνατόν ἐςιν ἀπὸ τάυτης χώραν ἰδεῖν
καίπερ ἀπεχόυσης ἀπὸ τῆς ἠπέρου στάδια
τετρακόσἰ, ὡς δὴ συγγράφει Δημήτριος.μετὰ τάῦτα δ᾽ ἑσθ᾽ ὁ Πόντος. οὗ δὴ τὴν θέσιν
Ὁ Καλλατιανὸς σνγγράφευς Δημήτριος
ἔοικεν ἐπιμελεςάτως πεπυσμένος.—v. 717.
ἐλληνίζοντες, διὰ τὸ ἐν μέσοις οἰκεῖν τοῖς βαρβάροις, ὅμως τὴν γε Ἰλίαδα ὀλίγου (qu. δεῖν) πάντες ἴσασιν ἀπὸ ςόματος.—Orat. xxxvi.
