Chaps. 27-28.

Chap. 27.—The Islands of the Euxine. The Islands of the Northern Ocean.

But now, in conformity with the plan which I originally proposed, the remaining portions of this gulf must be described. As for its seas, we have already made mention of them.

(13.) The Hellespont has no islands belonging to Europe that are worthy of mention. In the Euxine there are, at a distance of a mile and a half from the European shore, and of fourteen from the mouth of the Strait, the two Cyanæan [These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople.] islands, by some called the Symplegades [From σὺν and πληγὴ, “a striking together.” Tournefort has explained the ancient story of these islands running together, by remarking that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different points of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the mainland by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in stormy weather.], and stated in fabulous story to have run the one against the other; the reason being the circumstance that they are separated by so short an interval, that while to those who enter the Euxine opposite to them they appear to be two distinct islands, but if viewed in a somewhat oblique direction they have the appearance of becoming gradually united into one. On this side of the Ister there is the single island [Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboli), mentioned in C. of the present Book, was situate.] of the Apolloniates, eighty miles from the Thracian Bosporus; it was from this place that M. Lucullus brought the Capitoline [So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the Capitol. It was thirty cubits in height.] Apollo. Those islands which are to be found between the mouths of the Ister we have already mentioned [In C. of the present Book.]. Before the Borysthenes is Achillea [Mentioned in the last Chapter as the “Island of Achilles.”] previously referred to, known also by the names of Leuce and Macaron [From the Greek μακαρῶν, “(The island) of the Blest.” It was also called the “Island of the Heroes.”]. Researches which have been made at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fifty from the island of Peuce. It is about ten miles in circumference. The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cephalonnesos, Rhosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed by many writers that all the interior [Meaning all the inland or Mediterranean seas.] seas take their rise in this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of Gades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an improbable one—the fact that the tide is always running out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb.

We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer portions [As the whole of Pliny’s description of the northern shores of Europe is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than transcribe the learned remarks of M. Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajasson’s Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, “Before entering on the discussion of this portion of Pliny’s geography, let us here observe, once for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffrefelds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of Rubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity of these suppositions is proved by—I. The impossibility of the ancients ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large vessels, the compass, and others of those appliances, aided by which European skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas. II. The immense lacunæ which would be found to exist in the descriptions of these distant seas and shores: for not a word do we find about those numerous archipelagos which are found scattered throughout the North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon the local phænomena of these spots. The North Cape belongs to the second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half. Is it likely that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable phænomenon, well known to the Romans by virtue of their astronomical theories, but one with which practically they had never made themselves acquainted?—The only geographers who here merit our notice are those who are of opinion that in some of the coasts or islands here mentioned Pliny describes the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in others the Coast of Finland. The first question then is, to what point Pliny first carries us? It is evident that from the Black Sea he transports himself on a sudden to the shores of the Baltic, thus passing over at a single leap a considerable space filled with nations and unknown deserts. The question then is, what line has he followed? Supposing our author had had before his eyes a modern map, the imaginary line which he would have drawn in making this transition would have been from Odessa to the Kurisch-Haff. In this direction the breadth across Europe is contracted to a space, between the two seas, not more than 268 leagues in length. A very simple mode of reasoning will conclusively prove that Pliny has deviated little if anything from this route. If he fails to state in precise terms upon what point of the shores of the Baltic he alights after leaving the Riphæan mountains, his enumeration of the rivers which discharge themselves into that sea, and with which he concludes his account of Germany, will supply us with the requisite information, at all events in great part. In following his description of the coast, we find mention made of the following rivers, the Guttalus, the Vistula, the Elbe, the Weser, the Ems, the Rhine, and the Meuse. The five last mentioned follow in their natural order, from east to west, as was to be expected in a description starting from the east of Europe for its western extremity and the shores of Cadiz. We have a right to conclude then that the Guttalus was to the east of the Vistula. As we shall now endeavour to show, this river was no other than the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel, which the Romans probably, in advancing from west to east, considered as the principal stream, from the circumstance that they met with it, before coming to the larger river. The Pregel after being increased by the waters of the Alle or Guttalus falls into the Frisch-Haff, about one degree further west than the Kurisch-Haff. It may however be here remarked, Why not find a river more to the east, the Niemen, for instance, or the Duna, to be represented by the Guttalus? The Niemen in especial would suit in every respect equally well, because it discharges itself into the Kurisch-Haff. This conjecture however is incapable of support, when we reflect that the ancients were undoubtedly acquainted with some points of the coast to the east of the mouth of the Guttalus, but which, according to the system followed by our author, would form part of the Continent of Asia. These points are, 1st. The Cape Lytarmis (mentioned by Pliny, B. vi. c. 4). 2ndly. The mouth of the river Carambucis (similarly mentioned by him), and 3rdly, a little to the east of Cape Lytarmis, the mouth of the Tanais. The name of Cape Lytarmis suggests to us Lithuania, and probably represents Domess-Ness in Courland; the Carambucis can be no other than the Niemen; while the Tanais, upon which so many authors, ancient and modern, have exhausted their conjectures, from confounding it with the Southern Tanais which falls into the Sea of Azof, is evidently the same as the Dwina or Western Duna. This is established incontrovertibly both by its geographical position (the mouth of the Dwina being only fifty leagues to the east of Domess-Ness) and the identity evidently of the names Dwina and Tanais. Long since, Leibnitz was the first to remark the presence of the radical T. n, or D. n, either with or without a vowel, in the names of the great rivers of Eastern Europe; Danapris or Dnieper, Danaster or Dniester, Danube (in German Donau, in Hungarian Duna), Tanais or Don, for example; all which rivers however discharge themselves into the Black Sea. There can be little doubt then of the identity of the Duna with the Tanais, it being the only body of water in these vast countries which bears a name resembling the initial Tan, or Tn, and at the same time belongs to the basin of the Baltic. We are aware, it is true, that the White Sea receives a river Dwina, which is commonly called the Northern Dwina, but there can be no real necessity to be at the trouble of combating the opinion that this river is identical with the Northern Tanais. As the result then of our investigations, it is at the eastern extremity of the Frisch-Haff and near the mouth of the Pregel, that we would place the point at which Pliny sets out. As for the Riphæan mountains, they have never existed anywhere but in the head of the geographers from whom our author drew his materials. From the mountains of Ural and Poias, which Pliny could not possibly have in view, seeing that they lie in a meridian as eastern as the Caspian Sea, the traveller has to proceed 600 leagues to the south-west without meeting with any chains of mountains or indeed considerable elevations.”] of Europe. After passing the Riphæan mountains we have now to follow the shores of the Northern Ocean on the left, until we arrive at Gades. In this direction a great number of islands [It is pretty clear that he refers to the numerous islands scattered over the face of the Baltic Sea, such as Dago, Oesel, Gothland, and Aland.] are said to exist that have no name; among which there is one which lies opposite to Scythia, mentioned under the name of Raunonia [The old reading here was Bannomanna, which Dupinet would translate by the modern Bornholm. Parisot considers that the modern Runa, a calcareous rock covered with vegetable earth, in the vicinity of Domess-Ness, is the place indicated.], and said to be at a distance of the day’s sail from the mainland; and upon which, according to Timæus, amber is thrown up by the waves in the spring season. As to the remaining parts of these shores, they are only known from reports of doubtful authority. With reference to the Septentrional [It has been suggested by Brotier that Pliny here refers to the Icy Sea, but it is more probable that he refers to the north-eastern part of the Baltic, which was looked upon by the ancients us forming part of the open sea.] or Northern Ocean; Hecatæus calls it, after we have passed the mouth of the river Parapanisus, where it washes the Scythian shores, the Amalchian sea, the word ‘Amalchian’ signifying in the language of these races, frozen. Philemon again says that it is called Morimarusa or the “Dead Sea” by the Cimbri, as far as the Promontory of Rubeas, beyond which it has the name of the Cronian [With reference to these divisions of land and sea, a subject which is involved in the greatest obscurity, Parisot states it as his opinion that the Amalchian or Icy Sea is that portion of the Baltic which extends from Cape Rutt to Cape Grinea, while on the other hand the Cronian Sea comprehends all the gulfs which lie to the east of Cape Rutt, such as the Haff, the gulfs of Stettin and Danzic, the Frisch-Haff, and the Kurisch-Haff. He also thinks that the name of ‘Cronian’ originally belonged only to that portion of the Baltic which washes the coast of Courland, but that travellers gradually applied the term to the whole of the sea. He is also of opinion that the word “Cronium” owes its origin to the Teutonic and Danish adjective groen or “green.” The extreme verdure which characterizes the islands of the Danish archipelago has given to the piece of water which separates the islands of Falster and Moen the name of Groensund, and it is far from improbable that the same epithet was given to the Pomeranian and Prussian Seas, which the Romans would be not unlikely to call ‘Gronium’ or ‘Cronium fretum,’ or ‘Cronium mare.’ In the name ‘Parapanisus’ he also discovers a resemblance to that of modern Pomerania.] Sea. Xenophon of Lampsacus tells us that at a distance of three days’ sail from the shores of Scythia, there is an island of immense size called Baltia [Upon this Parisot remarks that on leaving Cape Rutt, at a distance of about twenty-five leagues in a straight line, we come to the island of Funen or Fyen, commonly called Fionia, the most considerable of the Danish archipelago next to Zealand, and which lying between the two Belts, the Greater and the Smaller, may very probably from that circumstance have obtained the name of Baltia. Brotier takes Baltia to be no other than Nova Zembla—so conflicting are the opinions of commentators!], which by Pytheas is called Basilia [Parisot suggests that under this name may possibly lie concealed that of the modern island of Zealand or Seeland, and that it may have borne on the side of it next to the Belt the name of Baltseeland, easily corrupted by the Greeks into Basilia.]. Some islands [Brotier takes these to be the islands of Aloo, and Bieloi or Ostrow, at the mouth of the river Paropanisus, which he considers to be the same as the Obi. Parisot on the other hand is of opinion that islands of the Baltic are here referred to; that from the resemblance of the name Oönæ to the Greek ὠὸν, “an egg,” the story that the natives subsisted on the eggs of birds was formed; that not improbably the group of the Hippopodes resembled the shape of a horse-shoe, from which the story mentioned by Pliny took its rise; and that the Fanesii (or, as the reading here has it, the Panotii, “all-ears”) wore their hair very short, from which circumstance their ears appeared to be of a larger size than usual.] called Oönæ are said to be here, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of birds and oats; and others again upon which human beings are produced with the feet of horses, thence called Hippopodes. Some other islands are also mentioned as those of the Panotii, the people of which have ears of such extraordinary size as to cover the rest of the body, which is otherwise left naked.

Leaving these however, we come to the nation of the Ingævones [Tacitus speaks of three great groups of the German tribes, the Ingævones forming the first thereof, and consisting of those which dwelt on the margin of the ocean, the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istævones in the east and south of Germany. We shall presently find that Pliny adds two groups, the Vandili as the fourth, and the Peucini and Basternæ as the fifth. This classification however is thought to originate in a mistake, for Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili belonged to the Hermiones, and that Peucini and Basternæ are only names of individual tribes and not of groups of tribes.], the first in Germany; at which we begin to have some information upon which more implicit reliance can be placed. In their country is an immense mountain called Sevo [Brotier and other geographers are of opinion that by this name the chain of the Doffrefeld mountains is meant; but this cannot be the case if we suppose with Parisot that Pliny here returns south from the Scandinavian islands and takes his departure from Cape Rutt in the territory of the Ingævones. Still, it is quite impossible to say what mountains he would designate under the name of Sevo. Parisot suggests that it is a form of the compound word “seevohner,” “inhabitants of the sea,” and that it is a general name for the elevated lands along the margin of the sea-shore.], not less than those of the Riphæan range, and which forms an immense gulf along the shore as far as the Promontory of the Cimbri. This gulf, which has the name of the ‘Codanian,’ is filled with islands; the most famous among which is Scandinavia [Parisot supposes that under this name the isle of Funen is meant, but it is more generally thought that Norway and Sweden are thus designated, as that peninsula was generally looked upon as an island by the ancients. The Codanian Gulf was the sea to the east of the Cimbrian Chersonesus or Jutland, filled with the islands which belong to the modern kingdom of Denmark. It was therefore the southern part of the Baltic.], of a magnitude as yet unascertained: the only portion of it at all known is inhabited by the nation of the Hilleviones, who dwell in 500 villages, and call it a second world: it is generally supposed that the island of Eningia [By Eningia Hardouin thinks that the country of modern Finland is meant. Poinsinet thinks that under the name are included Ingria, Livonia, and Courland; while Parisot seems inclined to be of opinion that under this name the island of Zealand is meant, a village of which, about three-fourths of a league from the western coast, according to him, still bears the name of Heinïnge.] is of not less magnitude. Some writers state that these regions, as far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the Sarmati, the Venedi [Parisot is of opinion that the Venedi, also called Vinidæ and Vindili, were of Sclavish origin, and situate on the shores of the Baltic. He remarks that this people, in the fifth century, founded in Pomerania, when quitted by the Goths, a kingdom, the chiefs of which styled themselves the Konjucs of Vinland. Their name is also to be found in Venden, a Russian town in the government of Riga, in Windenburg in Courland, and in Wenden in the circle of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin.], the Sciri, and the Hirri [Parisot remarks that these two peoples were probably only tribes of the Venedi.], and that there is a gulf there known by the name of Cylipenus [Parisot feels convinced that Pliny is speaking here of the Gulf of Travemunde, the island of Femeren, and then of the gulf which extends from that island to Kiel, where the Eider separates Holstein from Jutland. On the other hand, Hardouin thinks that by the Gulf of Cylipenus the Gulf of Riga is meant, and that Latris is the modern island of Oësel. But, as Parisot justly remarks, to put this construction on Pliny’s language is to invert the order in which he has hitherto proceeded, evidently from east to west.], at the mouth of which is the island of Latris, after which comes another gulf, that of Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The Cimbrian Promontory, running out into the sea for a great distance, forms a peninsula which bears the name of Cartris [The modern Cape of Skagen on the north of Jutland.]. Passing this coast, there are three and twenty islands which have been made known by the Roman arms [When Drusus held the command in Germany, as we learn from Strabo, B. vii.]: the most famous of which is Burcana [It is generally agreed that this is the modern island of Borkhum, at the mouth of the river Amaiius or Ems.], called by our people Fabaria, from the resemblance borne [To a bean, from which (faba) the island had its name of Fabaria. In confirmation of this Hardouin states, that in his time there was a tower still standing there which was called by the natives Het boon huys, “the bean house.”] by a fruit which grows there spontaneously. There are those also called Glæsaria [From the word gles or glas, which primarily means ‘glass,’ and then figuratively “amber.” Probably Œland and Gothland. They will be found again mentioned in the Thirtieth Chapter of the present Book. See p. 351.] by our soldiers, from their amber; but by the barbarians they are known as Austeravia and Actania.

Chap. 28.—Germany.

The whole of the shores of this sea as far as the Scaldis [Now the Scheldt.], a river of Germany, is inhabited by nations, the dimensions of whose respective territories it is quite impossible to state, so immensely do the authors differ who have touched upon this subject. The Greek writers and some of our own countrymen have stated the coast of Germany to be 2500 miles in extent, while Agrippa, comprising Rhætia and Noricum in his estimate, makes the length to be 686 [In a straight line, of course. Parisot is of opinion that in forming this estimate Agrippa began at the angle formed by the river Piave in lat. 46° 4′, measuring thence to Cape Rubeas (now Rutt) in lat. 54° 25′. This would give 8° 21′, to which, if we add some twenty leagues for obliquity or difference of longitude, the total would make exactly the distance here mentioned.] miles, and the breadth 148 [As Parisot remarks, it is totally impossible to conceive the source of such an erroneous conclusion as this. Some readings make the amount 248, others 268.]. (14.) The breadth of Rhætia alone however very nearly exceeds that number of miles, and indeed we ought to state that it was only subjugated at about the period of the death of that general; while as for Germany, the whole of it was not thoroughly known to us for many years after his time. If I may be allowed to form a conjecture, the margin of the coast will be found to be not far short of the estimate of the Greek writers, while the distance in a straight line will nearly correspond with that mentioned by Agrippa.

There are five German races; the Vandili [As already mentioned, Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili or Vindili properly belonged to the Hermiones. Tacitus mentions but three groups of the German nations; the Ingævones on the ocean, the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istævones in the east and south of Germany. The Vandili, a Gothic race, dwelt originally on the northern coast of Germany, but afterwards settled north of the Marcomanni on the Riesengebirge. They subsequently appeared in Dacia and Pannonia, and in the beginning of the fifth century invaded Spain. Under Genseric they passed over into Africa, and finally took and plundered Rome in A.D. 455. Their kingdom was finally destroyed by Belisarius.], parts of whom are the Burgundiones [It is supposed that the Burgundiones were a Gothic people dwelling in the country between the rivers Viadus and Vistula, though Ammianus Marcellinus declares them to have been of pure Roman origin. How they came into the country of the Upper Maine in the south-west of Germany in A.D. 289, historians have found themselves at a loss to inform us. It is not improbable that the two peoples were not identical, and that the similarity of their name arose only from the circumstance that they both resided in “burgi” or burghs. See Gibbon, iii. 99. Bohn’s Ed.], the Varini [The Varini dwelt on the right bank of the Albis or Elbe, north of the Langobardi. Ptolemy however, who seems to mention them as the Avarini, speaks of them as dwelling near the sources of the Vistula, on the site of the present Cracow. See Gibbon, iv. 225. Bohn’s Ed.], the Carini [Nothing whatever is known of the locality of this people.], and the Gutones [They are also called in history Gothi, Gothones, Gotones and Gutæ. According to Pytheas of Marseilles (as mentioned by Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 2), they dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, in the vicinity of what is now called the Fritsch-Haff. Tacitus also refers to the same district, though he does not speak of them as inhabiting the coast. Ptolemy again speaks of them as dwelling on the east of the Vistula, and to the south of the Venedi. The later form of their name, Gothi, does not occur till the time of Caracalla. Their native name was Gutthinda. They are first spoken of as a powerful nation at the beginning of the third century, when we find them mentioned as ‘Getæ,’ from the circumstance of their having occupied the countries formerly inhabited by the Sarmatian Getæ. The formidable attacks made by this people, divided into the nations of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, upon the Roman power during its decline, are too well known to every reader of Gibbon to require further notice.]: the Ingævones, forming a second race, a portion of whom are the Cimbri [The inhabitants of Chersonesus Cimbrica, the modern peninsula of Jutland. It seems doubtful whether these Cimbri were a Germanic nation or a Celtic tribe, as also whether they were the same race whose numerous hordes successively defeated six Roman armies, and were finally conquered by C. Marius, B.C. 101, in the Campi Raudii. The more general impression, however, entertained by historians, is that they were a Celtic or Gallic and not a Germanic nation. The name is said to have signified “robbers.” See Gibbon, i. 273, iii. 365. Bohn’s Ed.], the Teutoni [The Teutoni or Teutones dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, adjacent to the territory of the Cimbri. Their name, though belonging originally to a single nation or tribe, came to be afterwards applied collectively to the whole people of Germany. See Gibbon, iii. 139. Bohn’s Ed.], and the tribes of the Chauci [Also called Cauchi, Cauci, and Cayci, a German tribe to the east of the Frisians, between the rivers Ems and Elbe. The modern Oldenburg and Hanover are supposed to pretty nearly represent the country of the Chauci. In B. xvi. c. 1. 2, will be found a further account of them by Pliny, who had visited their country, at least that part of it which lay on the sea-coast. They are mentioned for the last time in the third century, when they had extended so far south and west that they are spoken of as living on the banks of the Rhine.]. The Istævones [Mentioned by Tacitus as dwelling in the east and south of Germany.], who join up to the Rhine, and to whom the Cimbri [It has been suggested by Titzius that the words “quorum Cimbri,” “to whom the Cimbri belong,” are an interpolation; which is not improbable, or at least that the word “Cimbri” has been substituted for some other name.] belong, are the third race; while the Hermiones, forming a fourth, dwell in the interior, and include the Suevi [This appears to be properly the collective name of a great number of the German tribes, who were of a migratory mode of life, and spoken of in opposition to the more settled tribes, who went under the general name of Ingævones. Cæsar speaks of them as dwelling east of the Ubii and Sygambri, and west of the Cherusci. Strabo makes them extend in an easterly direction beyond the Albis or Elbe, and southerly as far as the sources of the Danube. Tacitus gives the name of Suevia to the whole of the east of Germany, from the Danube to the Baltic. The name of the modern Suabia is derived from a body of adventurers from various German tribes, who assumed the name of Suevi in consequence of their not possessing any other appellation.], the Hermunduri [A large and powerful tribe of Germany, which occupied the extensive tract of country between the mountains in the north-west of Bohemia and the Roman Wall in the south-west, which formed the boundary of the Agri Decumates. On the east they bordered on the Narisci, on the north-east on the Cherusci, and on the north-west on the Chatti. There is little doubt that they originally formed part of the Suevi. At a later period they spread in a north-easterly direction, taking possession of the north-western part of Bohemia and the country about the sources of the Maine and Saale, that is, the part of Franconia as far as Kissingen and the south-western part of the kingdom of Saxony. The name Hermunduri is thought by some to signify highlanders, and to be a compound of Her or Ar, “high,” and Mund, “man.”], the Chatti [One of the great tribes of Germany, which rose to importance after the decay of the power of the Cherusci. It is thought by ethnographers that their name is still preserved in the word “Hessen.” They formed the chief tribe of the Hermiones here mentioned, and are described by Cæsar as belonging to the Suevi, though Tacitus distinguishes them, and no German tribe in fact occupied more permanently its original locality than the Chatti. Their original abode seems to have extended from the Westerwald in the west to the Saale in Franconia, and from the river Maine in the south as far as the sources of the Elison and the Weser, so that they occupied exactly the modern country of Hessen, including perhaps a portion of the north-west of Bavaria. See Gibbon, vol. iii. 99. Bohn’s Ed.], and the Cherusci [The Cherusci were the most celebrated of all the German tribes, and are mentioned by Cæsar as of the same importance as the Suevi, from whom they were separated by the Silva Bacensis. There is some difficulty in stating their exact locality, but it is generally supposed that their country extended from the Visurgis or Weser in the west to the Albis or Elbe in the east, and from Melibocus in the north to the neighbourhood of the Sudeti in the south, so that the Chamavi and Langobardi were their northern neighbours, the Chatti the western, the Hermunduri the southern, and the Silingi and Semnones their eastern neighbours. This tribe, under their chief Arminius or Hermann, forming a confederation with many smaller tribes in A.D. 9, completely defeated the Romans in the famous battle of the Teutoburg Forest. In later times they were conquered by the Chatti, so that Ptolemy speaks of them only as a small tribe on the south of the Hartz mountain. Their name afterwards appears, in the beginning of the fourth century, in the confederation of the Franks.]: the fifth race is that of the Peucini [The Peucini are mentioned here, as also by Tacitus, as identical with the Basternæ. As already mentioned, supposing them to be names for distinct nations, they must be taken as only names of individual tribes, and not of groups of tribes. It is generally supposed that their first settlements in Sarmatia were in the highlands between the Theiss and the March, whence they passed onward to the lower Danube, as far as its mouth, where a portion of them, settling in the island of Peuce, obtained the name of Peucini. In the later geographers we find them settled between the Tyrus or Dniester, and the Borysthenes or Dnieper, the Peucini remaining at the mouth of the Danube.], who are also the Basternæ, adjoining the Daci previously mentioned. The more famous rivers that flow into the ocean are the Guttalus [According to Parisot, the Guttalus is the same as the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel. Cluver thinks that it is the same as the Oder. Other writers again consider it the same as the Pregel.], the Vistillus or Vistula, the Albis [Or Elbe.], the Visurgis [Now the Weser.], the Amisius [The modern Ems.], the Rhine, and the Mosa [The Meuse.]. In the interior is the long extent of the Hercynian [The ‘Hercynia Silva,’ Hercynian Forest or Range, is very differently described by the writers of various ages. The earliest mention of it is by Aristotle. Judging from the accounts given by Cæsar, Pomponius Mela, and Strabo, the ‘Hercynia Silva’ appears to have been a general name for almost all the mountains of Southern and Central Germany, that is, from the sources of the Danube to Transylvania, comprising the Schwarzwald, Odenwald, Spessart, Rhön, Thuringer Wald, the Hartz mountain (which seems in a great measure to have retained the ancient name), Raube Alp, Steigerwald, Fichtelgebirge, Erzgebirge, and Riesengebirge. At a later period when the mountains of Germany had become better known, the name was applied to the more limited range extending around Bohemia, and through Moravia into Hungary.] range, which in grandeur is inferior to none.