100 MELPOMENE.

great rivers. The Carpis, moreover, which rises in
the country beyond the Umbrici, and the Alpis, which
flows towards the north, are both lost in the Danube.
Commencing with the Celtte, who, except the Cyne-
tss, are the most remote inhabitants in the west of
Europe, this river passes directly through the centre
of Europe, and by a certain inclination enters Scythii.

L. By the union of these and of many other waters,
the Danube becomes the greatest of all rivers ; but if
one be compared with another, the preference must
be given to the Nile, into which no stream nor foun­
tain enters. The reason why in the two opposite sea­
sons of the year, the Danube is uniformly the same,
seems to me to be this: in the winter it is at its foil
natural height, or perhaps somewhat more, at which
season there is, in the regions through which it passes,
abundance of snow, but very little rain; but in the
summer all this snow is dissolved, and emptied into
the Danube, which together with frequent and heavy
rains, greatly augment it. But in proportion as the
body of its waters is thus multiplied, are the exhala­
tions of the summer sun. The result of this action
and re-action on the Danube is, that its waters are
constantly of the same depth.

LI. Thus of the rivers which flow through Scythia,
the Danube is the first; next to this is the Tyres,
which rising in the north from an immense marsh,
divides Scythia from Neuris. At the mouth of this
river those Greeks live who are known by the name
of the Tyritffl.

LII. The third is the Hypanis; this comes from
Scythia, rising from an immense 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 from its first rise,
is small, and its waters are sweet, but from thence to
the sea, which is a journey of four days more, it be­
comes exceedingly bitter. This is occasioned by a
small fountain, which it receives in its passage, and
which is of so very bitter a quality, that it infects this
river, though by no means contemptible in point of
size: this fountain rises in the country of the plough­