Gell, William: The geography and antiquities of Ithaca (London, 1807)

80

scribed by the poet, with two ports. This passage evidently
alludes to the isle of Dascallio, which Strabo seems to have
thought Asteris, supposing that it had undergone some al-
teration since the time of Homer, as he thought it better
to assign a physical cause for the difference, than ignorance
in the poet, or fabulous misrepresentation of the place. He
adduces the island of Leucadia as a proof of the changes
which had taken place since the writing of the Odyssey,
and islands at the mouth of the Achelous as a further
confirmation of his principle.

But had he ever visited Leucadia, he would have seen
that this great work, which he attributes to nature, was
merety a little canal for the passage of boats, cut through
a bank of sand only a few yards wide, and that what was done
by the inhabitants after the Peloponnesian war, was a very
inconsiderable work, and was no argument to prove that
nature had undergone any alteration. The other instance
of the islands at the mouth of the Achelous becoming
united to the terra firma is certainly correct; but the reason
is evidently to be found in the quantity of sand brought