DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11789#0053
CHARYBDIS.
43
Sicily appear for a long time to be entirely continu-
ous ; at length, you discover a valley rather more
strongly marked than the others, hut it is only
when you draw very near that, at last, the valley
opens, and you perceive a strip of water like a
river, extending forward between the hills—and
this is all that divides Sicily from the main land,
and constitutes it an island. The ancients asserted
that Sicily had been separated from Italy by an
earthquake ; and it seems that a very gentle inoffen-
sive sort of an earthquake (in other words, one that
was " no great shakes") might have readily produced
this result. As we entered the strait, we passed
a spot one or two hundred yards in extent,
where the different currents, caused probably
by the irregularities of the rocky bottom, produce
a rippling and eddying more or less violent in the
surface of the sea. This proved to be the far-
famed Charybdis. It seemed to me anything but
formidable; but at this time the sea was compara-
tively calm. In a strong wind, it might have ap-
peared very different, especially to the ancients,
who had probably nothing better than small sail-
ing vessels, wherewith to navigate these waters.
Across the strait to the left, Scylla was pointed out
to us, but whether sbe was intimidated by the ap-
43
Sicily appear for a long time to be entirely continu-
ous ; at length, you discover a valley rather more
strongly marked than the others, hut it is only
when you draw very near that, at last, the valley
opens, and you perceive a strip of water like a
river, extending forward between the hills—and
this is all that divides Sicily from the main land,
and constitutes it an island. The ancients asserted
that Sicily had been separated from Italy by an
earthquake ; and it seems that a very gentle inoffen-
sive sort of an earthquake (in other words, one that
was " no great shakes") might have readily produced
this result. As we entered the strait, we passed
a spot one or two hundred yards in extent,
where the different currents, caused probably
by the irregularities of the rocky bottom, produce
a rippling and eddying more or less violent in the
surface of the sea. This proved to be the far-
famed Charybdis. It seemed to me anything but
formidable; but at this time the sea was compara-
tively calm. In a strong wind, it might have ap-
peared very different, especially to the ancients,
who had probably nothing better than small sail-
ing vessels, wherewith to navigate these waters.
Across the strait to the left, Scylla was pointed out
to us, but whether sbe was intimidated by the ap-