MELPOMENL. 101

ing Scythians, and of the Alazones. It takes the
name of the place where it springs, which in the Scy­
thian tongue is Exampseus, corresponding 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 soon separate
again to a considerable distance.

LIII. The fourth river, and the largest next to the
Danube, is the Borysthenes. In my opinion this river
is more fertile, not only than all the rivers of Scythia,
but than every other in the world, except the Egyp­
tian Nile. The Nile, it must be confessed, disdains
all comparison; the Borysthenes nevertheless affords
most agreeable and excellent pasturage, 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 sweet ; its banks are adorned
by the richest harvests, and in those places where
corn is not sown the grass grows to* a surprising
height; at its mouth a larg6 mass of salt is formed of
itself. It produces also a species of large fish, which
is called Antacssus; these, which have no prickly
fins, the inhabitants salt: it possesses various other
things which deserve our admiration. The course of
the stream may be pursued 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 passes, no one can speak with
certainty; it seems probable that it runs toward the
district of the Scythian husbandmen, through a path­
less desert. For the space of a ten days' journey
these Scythians inhabit its banks. The sources of
this river, like those of the Nile, are to me unknown,
as I believe they are to every other Greek. This
river, as it approaches the sea, is joined by the Hy­
panis, and they have both the same termination: the
neck of land betwixt these two streams is called the
Hippoleon promontory, in which a temple is erected
to Ceres. Beyond this temple as far as the Hypanis,
dwell the Borysthenites. But on this subject enough
has been said.

LIV. Next to the above, is a fifth river, called ths

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