Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/366

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

382 PLIIfT's NATUEA.L HISTOET. [Book lY. given to the sea that waslies its banks the name of the Hylsean Sea; its inhabitants are called Enoechadlfce Be- yond them is the river Panticapes"^, which separates the JSFomades^ and the Georgi. and after it the Acesinus^. Some authors say that the Panticapes flows into the Boi^ysthenes below Olbia^. Others, who are more correct, say that it is the Hypanis^ : so great is the mistake made by those who have placed if in Asia. The sea runs in here and forms a large gulf ^, until there is only an intervening space ^ of five miles between it and the Lake Mseotis, its margin forming the sea-line of extensive tracts of land, and numerous nations ; it is known as the Gulf of Carcinites. Here we find the river Pacyris^", the towns of Navarum and Carcine^ and behind it Lake Buges^^, which

  • For Enoechadlse, Hardouin suggests that we should read Inde St/lcBi^

"hence the mhabitants are called by the name of Hylsei." 2 The Panticapes is usually identified with the modern Somara, but perhaps withoiit suiBcient grounds. It is more probably the Kouskawoda. 2 The Nomades or wandering, from the Georgi or agricultural Scy- thians-. ^ The Acesinus does not appear to have been identified by modern geographers. ° Above called Olbiopohs or Miletopohs. ^ The Bog or Boug. Flowmg parallel with the Borysthenes or Dnieper, it cUsLarged itself into the Euxine at the town of Olbia, at no great distance from the mouth of the Borysthenes. 7 Probably meaning the mouth or point at which the river discharges itself into the sea. ^ The modern Grulf of Negropoli or Perekop, on the west side of the Chersonesus Taurica or Crimea. 3 Forming the present isthmus of Perekop, which divides the Sea of Perekop from the Sea of Azof. ^^ Called by Herodotus Hypacyris, and by later writers Carcinites. It is generally supposed to be the same as the small stream now known as the Kalantchak. ^^ Hardouin says that the city of Carcine has still retained its name, but changed its site. More modern geographers however are of opinion that nothing can be determined with certainty as to its site. Of the site also of Navarum nothing seems to be known. ^2 Or Buces or Byce. This is reaUy a gulf, almost enclosed, at the end of the Sea of Azof. Strabo gives a more full description of it imder the name of the Sapra Zdmne, " the Putrid Lake," by wlaieh name it is still called, in Russian, SibacJie or Sivache More. It is a vast lagoon, covered with water when an east ATnd blows the water of the Sea of Azof into it, but at other times a tract of shme and mud, sending forth pestilential vapours.