a pour base la
direction des courans, qui, _renvoyes d'une points a l'autre,_
forment des obstacles a la navigation, et feroient courir les plus
grands risques si l'on negligeoit ces connoissances
hydrographiques.'--_Memoires de_ TOTT, 3^{_me_} _Partie_.

"To the above citations, I will add the opinion of Tournefort, who,
in his description of the strait, expresses with ridicule his
disbelief of the truth of Leander's exploit; and to show that the
latest travellers agree with the earlier, I will conclude my
quotation with a statement of Mr. Madden, who is just returned from
the spot. 'It was from the European side Lord Byron swam _with_ the
current, which runs about four miles an hour. But I believe he would
have found it totally impracticable to have crossed from Abydos to
Europe.'--MADDEN'S _Travels_, vol. i.

"There are two other observations in Lord Byron's letter on which I
feel it necessary to remark.

"'Mr. Turner says, "Whatever is thrown into the stream on this part
of the European bank _must_ arrive at the Asiatic shore." This is so
far from being the case, that it _must_ arrive in the Archipelago, if
left to the current, although a strong wind from the Asiatic[1] side
might have such an effect occasionally.'

[Footnote 1: "This is evidently a mistake of the writer or printer.
His Lordship must here have meant a strong wind from the European
side, as no wind from the Asiatic side could have the effect of
driving an object to the Asiatic shore."

I think it right to remark, that it is Mr. Turner himself who has
here originated the inaccuracy of which he accuses others; the words
used by Lord Byron being, _not_, as Mr. Turner says, "from the
Asiatic side," but "in the Asiatic direction."--T. M.]

"Here Lord Byron is right, and I have no hesitation in confessing
that I was wrong. But I was wrong only in the letter of my remark,
not in the spirit of it. Any _thing_ thrown into the stream on the
European bank would be swept into the Archipelago, because, after
arriving so near the Asiatic-shore as to be almost, if not quite,
within a man's depth, it would be again floated off from the coast by
the current that is dashed from the Asiatic promontory. But this
would not affect a swimmer, who, being so near the land, would of
course, if he could not actually walk to it, reach it by a slight
effort.

"Lord Byron adds, in his P.S. 'The strait is, however, not
extraordinarily wide, even where it broadens above