9.

The Nebrodes mountains2334 take their rise opposite2335 to Ætna; they are not so lofty as Ætna, but extend over a much greater surface. The whole island is hollow under ground, and full of rivers and fire like the bed of the Tyrrhenian Sea,2336 as far as Cumæa, as we before described.2337 For there are hot springs in many places in the island, some of which are saline, as those named Selinuntia2338 and the springs at Himera, while those at Ægesta2339 are fresh. Near to Acragas2340 there are certain lakes,2341 the waters of which taste like the sea, but their [Pg 416]
[CAS. 274] properties are very different, for if those who do not know how to swim plunge into them, they are not covered over by them, but float on the surface like pieces of wood.

The Palici2342 possess craters which cast up water in a jet, having the appearance of a dome, and then receive it back again into the same place it rose from. The cavern near Mataurum2343 has within it a considerable channel, with a river flowing through it under ground for a long distance, and afterwards emerging to the surface as does the El-Asi2344 in Syria, which, after descending into the chasm between Apameia and Antioch, which they call Charybdis, rises again to the surface at the distance of about 40 stadia. Much the same circumstances are remarked of the Tigris2345 in Mesopotamia, and the Nile in Africa,2346 a little before2347 its most notorious springs. The water in the neighbourhood of the city of Stymphalus, having passed under ground about 200 stadia, gives rise to the river Erasinus2348 in Argia;2349 and again, the waters which are ingulfed with a low roaring sound near Asea2350 in Arcadia, after a long course, spring forth with such copiousness as to form the Eurotas and the Alpheus,2351 whence has arisen a fable extensively credited, that if a certain charm is uttered over each of two crowns on their being cast into the stream where the two rivers flow in a common channel, each crown will make its appearance in its respective river according to the charm. As for what we might add with reference to the Timao,2352 it has already been particularized.