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e se exonerantem

re the opinion of

in an easier and that the name of raits, from their

test ground for and Constantine

rt of the straits. Dorus designated must be underot exclude what

ce between two alled Burlic are existed in the

ely disappeared as undoubtedly likewise called Evagrius; and

nus 10. But we

that

ell his son he would have to the second e two distinct nown that the of the Burlic ss importance. pothesis, it is

one channel. two channels;

have hesitated

by the opinion

1. Valesius. Eva

18.

that there could not have been two in the time of Constantine Porphyrogeneta, since there is but one at the present time.

The point at issue therefore is to know whether Constantine was correct in saying that there were two channels or not. My opinion is that he was; and I shall now endeavour to prove that in former times there was a second Bosporus Cimmerius, and that it is the same which is called Burlic by Constantine Porphyrogeneta. It is hardly necessary to say that such a channel cannot have existed west of the Bosporus, across the elevated easternmost peninsula of the Crimea. But the eastern shore of the Bosporus belongs to a tract of land where we find the most evident traces of physical revolutions by which its surface was changed in former times, and to which it has continued to be subject down to the present day. This is the delta-island of Taman, the Tamatarcha of Constantine Porphyrogeneta, and the 'Hov of Pliny ", an island which has more the appearance of the skeleton of a land, than of a real land. "Taman," says Pallas 12 in his excellent account of it, "is a country which is cut up in a most singular manner, and where hills and lowlands alternate everywhere. Sinkings of the ground, volcanic eruptions, invasions of the sea, and the periodical inundations of the Kuban, are the causes of the revolutions which this island has undergone, and which are likely to change it still more. During our passage over the Bosporus to Taman, we distinctly perceived the volume of vapours which hangs over the island in calm weather. These vapours, which resemble a thick mist, together with the many deep sources of mud and rock-oil, are indubitable proofs that there is burning, at a considerable depth under the island, a quantity of inflammable matter (coals), which is the cause of this phenomenon, as well as of the extreme heat and moisture of the soil. The different branches of the Kuban, with several large bays and low tracts, completely insulate this country. Besides those bays, the salt-marshes near Kurku, together with some branches of the Kuban, and two more considerable arms of this river-lying beyond them, and running north into the sea of

11 Historia Naturalis, v1.6.
12 Bemerkungen auf einer Reise im
Südlichen Russland. Vol. II. p. 253, &c.

I.

The English Translation (London, 1812, 4to. p. 287, &c.) gives rather the general than the literal meaning of the passage.

7

13

Azof, and having the Russian names of Chernaïa Protoka Kazatchei-Yerik-completely insulate Taman, which ancientl no particular name: it appears, however, to have derived its p name from the word 'Tuman,' signifying "mist," in the and Russian languages; to which it is well entitled, on acco the vapours already mentioned."-I complete this descripti adding from Dureau de la Malle 13, that the atterations, res from the enormous quantity of clay and mud carried down in Sea of Azof by its numerous and mighty tributary rivers undoubtedly produced all these narrow necks of land so cha istic in the shores of this sea, and which, in the island of T separate from the sea several lakes and creeks, which, w any doubt, were in former times as many open gulfs and bay The skeleton-form of the island, the numerous lake creeks, the innumerable rivers and branches by which the part of the island and the adjacent continent are intersecte the result of the periodical inundations of the Kuban, which all the lowlands between the Sea of Azof and the Black S the causes of the great confusion which has always prevaile whether Taman was an island or a peninsula; and they to us the errors of so many distinguished geographers, who, no good maps of the country, could not extricate themselv this labyrinth of lakes and rivers.

Among the ancients, Strabo 14 gives the most detailed of this country. He speaks in very precise terms of its b island surrounded by the Mæotis, by a lake which he call condametis, and by the river Anticeita, or Hypanis. correct; but with regard to the lake Corocondametis his kn confused. He seems to understand the Kubanskoi

is

very

13 Géographie Physique de la Mer Noire.

14 Pag. 494-95, Cas.Ὑπέρκειται δὲ τῆς Κοροκονδάμης εὐμεγέθης λίμνη, ἣν καλοῦσιν ἀπ ̓ αὐτῆς Κοροκονδαμῆτιν· ἐκδίδωσι δὲ ἀπὸ δέκα σταδίων τῆς κώμης εἰς τὴν θάλατταν· ἐμβάλλει δὲ εἰς τὴν λίμνην ἀποῤῥωξ τὶς τοῦ Ἀντικείτου που ταμοῦ καὶ ποιεῖ νῆσον περίκλυστόν τινα ταύτῃ τε τῇ λίμνῃ καὶ τῇ Μαιώτιδι καὶ τῷ ποταμῷ· τινὲς δὲ καὶ τοῦτον τὸν που

ταμὸν Ὕπανιν προσαγορεύουσι καὶ τὸν πρὸς τῷ Βορυσθένει. σαντι δὲ εἰς τὸν Κοροκονδαμ Φαναγορία ἐστὶ πόλις αξιόλ Κῆπος, καὶ Ἑρμώνασσα, καὶ τουρον τὸ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ι Φαναγορία καὶ ὁ Κῆπος κατά θεῖσαν νῆσον ἵδρυνται, εἰσπ ἀριστερᾷ· αἱ δὲ λοιπαὶ πόλε πέραν Ὑπάνιος, ἐν τῇ Σινδικ

but he says, that "he who enters this lake in a ship will find the towns of Phanagoria and Cepi (near the entrance of the lake) at his left." It is true that Phanagoria is at the left, that is, northwest from the mouth of the Kuban; but it is separated from it by the whole breadth of the peninsula of Corocondama, a distance of 14 miles, or 122 stadia. It is also known that it is the main branch of the Kuban which flows into the Kubanskoi Liman, a mighty river, for which the words “ ἀποῤῥὸξ τὶς τοῦ ̓Αντικείτου ποταμoù" seem to be an inconvenient expression. As Strabo 15 knew very well that Phanagoria was situated on the Bosporus, opposite Panticapæum, he could not say that it was situated near the mouth of the Kuban; and the lake near Phanagoria is without doubt the bay of Taman, at the entrance of which this town is situated. However, Phanagoria is on the right, and not on the left, of those who arrive there from the sea. On the other hand, Strabo in saying that Hermonassa was to the right of the entrance, beyond the Hypanis, seems not to understand the entrance of the Kubanskoi Liman, but the bay of Taman. For Ptolemy, according to whom Phanagoria is situated in 47° 50′ lat. and 64° 30' long., places Hermonassa in 47° 30′ lat. and 65o long.; and though this point is in the Black Sea, it is in any case south of the Kuban; and Hermonassa, of course, was situated south of the Hypanis. Thence it follows, that he who enters the Kubanskoi Liman could not say that it was beyond the Hypanis; but it was beyond this river to those who entered the bay of Taman, near Phanagoria. It is also an important fact, that the town of Corocondama was situated at the southern entrance of the Bosporus, opposite Acra, and of course much nearer to the bay of Taman than to the Kubanskoi Liman, though the distance is much more than 10 stadia. These reasons have induced me to believe that the Lacus Corocondametis is the bay of Taman, and not the Kubanskoi Liman, as is the general opinion. The existence of a second Bosporus is of much importance for the final explanation of this passage of Strabo, as I shall show below. Strabo apparently confounds the Kubanskoi Liman, the bay of Taman, and the lake of Temruk; and the latter is the only one which he can possibly mean

15 Pag. 307.

by saying that ἀποῤῥωξ τὶς τοῦ ̓Αντικείτου ποταμοῦ falls into it. The lake of Temruk receives a branch of the Kuban, and empties itself into a large creek of the Sea of Azof by two channels near Fort Temruk, both or one of which were navigable in former times; they are the very channels by which, together with the main branch of the Kuban, Taman is made an island; and it can hardly be doubted that this branch with its continuations is the dropρwέ Toû Αντικείτου of Strabo.

Ptolemy is said to have made a mistake in putting his Atticitus, the presumed Anticeita of Strabo, too far towards the north, in 49° 20′ lat. and 70° long. But it is evident that the Atticitus is another branch of the Kuban, either the Chernaïa Protoka or the Kazatchei Yerik, which are both to the north of the above-mentioned creek; and with regard to the name of the river, Strabo may have been mistaken as well as Ptolemy, unless either Atticitus or Anticeita was the general, and perhaps barbarous name of the Kuban, which is very probable. In this case there is no mistake at all, as they gave the general name of the river to two of its branches, just as these branches are now often called Kuban, or Kara Kuban, or branches of the Kuban, though their local names are Chernaïa Protoka, and Kazatchey Yerik.

That branch which Strabo calls Anticeita, is called Vardanus by Ptolemy, and it seems that Vardanus was the local name of this branch.

It is well known that the eastern longitudes of Ptolemy are far from being accurate, and that they grow still more inaccurate in proportion as they advance towards the east; and it is also known that Ptolemy's idea concerning the extent and the position of the Mæotis is extremely erroneous. According to him, the longitudinal direction of this sea is from south to north, while in reality it is from south-west to north-east; so that Ptolemy puts the Promontorium Cimmerium in 66° 30' long., and the town of Tanais near the northern corner of the Mæotis in 67° long., while that promontory is in 36° 23′ E. long. of Greenwich, and the northern, or more correctly the north-eastern corner of the Sea of Azof, in 39o E. long. of Greenwich. Thus Ptolemy has committed an error of 2 degrees and 7 minutes of longitude. His mistake with regard to the latitudinal extent of the Mæotis is still

greater. He puts the Promontorium Cimmerium in 48° 30′ N. lat. and the town of Tanais in 54° 20′ N. lat.; and the extent of the Mæotis between those two points is therefore equal to 5 degrees and 50 minutes of latitude. But the promontory being in 45° 28′ N. lat. and 36° 23′ E. long. (the northern entrance of the Bosporus is in 45° 25′ N. lat., and 36°15′ E. long.), and the northeastern corner of the Sea of Azof in 47° 17′ N. lat. and 39o E. long.; the latitudinal difference between the two points is only 1 degree and 49 minutes. The direct distance between them is about 180 English miles; while, according to Ptolemy, it would be upwards of 400 miles. From this we may conclude that the latitudes and longitudes of Ptolemy are of little direct use. They are nevertheless very important on account of their comparative accuracy. The mouth of the Rhombites Minor, now Bey-su, in 50°30′ N. lat. and 69o long. according to Ptolemy, is at nearly an equal distance from the Promontorium Cimmerium in the south and the town of Tanais in the north; and exactly so is the mouth of the Bey-su, although the same distance amounts to about 240 miles according to the system of Ptolemy, while in reality it is only about 90 miles 16. It can hardly be doubted that Ptolemy knew the distance in stadia between the Promontorium Cimmerium and the Rhombites Minor, a place so well known for its fisheries; but as he was convinced, on the other hand, that his opinion respecting the position of Tanais was correct, and as he most probably knew that the mouth of the Rhombites Minor was half way between that promontory and Tanais, he fixed the river there, in spite of the distance in stadia, because here, as in many other cases, he would not sacrifice his system to the evidence of a single fact. As to the Vardanus mentioned above, he puts its mouth in 48° 20′ N. lat. and 68o long.; the Promontorium Cimmerium is in 48° 30' N. lat., and 66°30' long.; the mouth, of course, would be at 1 degree and 30 minutes east of the promontory, and but 10 minutes south of it. There is no river in the southern part of the Mæotis so far east from the promontory; and the longitude, of course, is one of those theoretical errors of Ptolemy. The decisive fact is the latitude. There is no river of the whole Sea of Azof that has its mouth

16 Comp. Strabo, p. 493–94.

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