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[15]

Near the mouths of the Danube is the large island called Peuce.1 This the Bastarnæ possessed, and were hence called Peucini. There are also other islands much smaller, some above this, and others nearer the sea. The Danube has seven mouths, the largest is called the Sacred Mouth,2 the passage by which to Peuce is 120 stadia.3 At the lower part of this island Darius made his bridge. It might likewise have been constructed at the upper part. This is the first mouth on the left-hand side as you sail into the Black Sea; the rest are passed while sailing along towards the Dniester; the seventh mouth is distant from this first mouth about 300 stadia. These mouths form several islands. The first three mouths next after the Sacred Mouth are but small, the remainder are much less than it, but greater than any of the three. Ephorus states that the Danube has five mouths. From hence to the Dniester,4 which is a navigable river, there are 900 stadia.5 In the district intervening there are two great lakes; one is open to the sea, and is used as a harbour,6 the other has no outlet.

1 Now Piczina.

2 Ammianus Marcellinus, book xxii. chap. 8, gives the names of these mouths. He calls the Sacred Mouth by the name of the island Peuce.

3 There has been much geographical change in this locality since Strabo wrote.

4 The Tyras.

5 Gossellin supports this distance.

6 The Lake Ovidovo.

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