lake there were cut two canals, the one opening into the main sea, the other into the straits. A third canal, con-necting the two lakes together, was also cut; and it was during the execution of this latter work, that the foundation of the Temple of Neptune, once held in great repute, and said to have been built by Orion, was discovered.-(Diod. Sic. lib. iv. 197). The materials of this temple, it seems, were applied, in the reign of Justinian, to the building of the cathedral of Messina; and so complete was the consequent demolition of the former structure, that its very site had long been forgotten. Some remains of Roman baths, together with portions of tesselated pavement, were also discovered during the excavations near the Faro Point.

ρευμα

The current in the straits-called rema, evidently from the Greek word pevua-is very rapid, and changes its direction every six hours. This change of current has by some been attributed to a subterranean communication between Etna and the sea. Aristotle, however, ascribed this, like other ebbs and flows, to the influence of the moon; and this hypothesis is corroborated not only by the regularity of the six-hour tide*, but by the

* Virgil, following Homer, says the current changes three times a day :

Ter gurgite vastos

Sorbet in abruptum fluctus rursusque sub auras
Erigit alternos.

Many, however, think with Polybius, that Homer wrote dig instead τρις, the latter having been inserted by the inattention of copyists.

of

fact that the current is more or less rapid according to the increase or wane of that planet. If the wind and current happen to be both of them contrary, there is no alternative but to anchor outside the straits till the latter turns, when it is easy enough to make the passage. Some allowance ought doubtless to be made for poetical exaggeration; but it seems scarcely fair to suppose that the dangers of Charybdis existed only in the imagination of the poets. If it no longer inspires terror, this perhaps is chiefly attributable to the great improvement in the science of navigation-a science in which the ancients were exceedingly deficient; while their consequent timidity was so notorious, that Propertius's caution against the risk of venturing too far from shore might, one would think, have been spared:

Alter remus aquas, alter tibi radat arenas,

Tutus eris; medio maxima turba mari.—Lib. iii.

To shun the dangers of the ocean, sweep

The sands with one oar, and with one the deep.

Various situations have been assigned to the Charybdis of antiquity. Some, for example, place it at the Faro Point; others at the mouth of the harbour; others, again, at the lighthouse opposite the harbour, where the water is in a state of constant agitation. Captain Smyth seems to adopt this latter supposition. "Outside the tongue of land," says he, "that forms the harbour of Messina, lies the Galofaro, or celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which has, with more reason than Scylla, been clothed with terrors by the writers of antiquity. To the

undecked boats of the Rhegians, Locrians, Zancleans, and Greeks, it must have been formidable; for, even in the present day, small craft are sometimes endangered by it, and I have seen several men-of-war, and even a seventy-four-gun ship, whirled round on its surface; but, by using due caution, there is generally very little danger or inconvenience to be apprehended. It appears to be an agitated water, of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees, in some measure, with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas; and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read, who has assigned this danger its true situation*, and not exaggerated its effects."

In this passage, in order to avoid the violent suction occasioned by the whirling of the waters of Charybdis, the small gallies in use among the ancients were obliged to steer as close as possible to the Calabrian coast: thus, when they came opposite Cape Pelorus,

* Probably the ancients themselves had but vague notions upon this point, and in the name of Charybdis included the whole extent of this eddying surge-this "mare vorticosum," as it is called by Pliny.-(N. H. lib. iii. c. 8). Homer and Virgil describe it as poets, not as topographers, and probably never inspected its terrors; or, if it ever had a local habitation as well as a name, this has disappeared in the lapse of ages.-Hughes's Travels in Greece, &c.

where the rapidity of the current is increased by the narrowness of the straits, they were in danger of being carried directly against Scylla. Hence the proverb, (still applied to those who, in attemping to avoid one evil, fall into another):

Incidit in Scyllam, qui vult vitare Charybdim.

233

MESSINA.

Λιμην ενορμος ιν' ου χρεω πεισματος εστιν,

Ουτ' ευνας βαλεειν ουτε πρυμνησι αναψαι.—HOMER.

MESSINA rises from the shore of its noble harbour over several ranges of secondary hills, at the base of that magnificent range of mountains, to which has been applied the name of the Neptunian chain. In front is the bold coast of Calabria, presenting scenes scarcely less romantic than those on the Sicilian side, and separated from it only by a strait which has rather the appearance of a majestic river than the sea.

The town itself, though crowded with churches, convents, and fountains, presents nothing very striking, with the exception of the quay, which stretches along the edge of the harbour for nearly a mile, commanding an uninterrupted view of the Calabrian coast. The crescent of noble edifices, called La Palazzata, which formerly flanked this quay, was overturned by the tremendous earthquakes of 1783, and lay in a state of ruin till the occupation of Sicily by the English. These edifices have since been but partly restored; for the government, dreading a recurrence of the same disastrous convulsions, forbad the carrying of them to their former height. Hence they look as if cut down at the first story-the pillars being without capitals, and far short of their intended elevation.