Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1890-06-13
OId Legends Prored I'm

IT has not infrequentlv bron discor.
cred of late that some nf Tho 80,
ments Of ancient writer's. which ~
nave regarded in our fsncied wisdom
as too marvellous 10 be believed are
nevertheless true The geocrar,beg
Itolemy; for instance. wrote that tba
source Of the Nile was Ia a mountain
range, known as the Mountains of tbo
Moon, because of the snow upon them
Modern geographers scoffed AT the
IDEA that there could be such Inftv
mountains under the equator. Int
STANLEY, in his now famous march To
the sea, skirted the foot of a rance of
snow-clad mountains. called bv him
Ruwenzori, from whose streams j.
formed ~ newly discovered Lake Al
1ert Edward, the EXTREMIST source OF
the Nile.
80 Herodotus, the Father of History.
repeatedly asserted that the Pb,ni-
eians thought that they originally came
from the Erythruan Sea or Persian
Gulf. This statement modern srbol-
ars have found very ii Hcult to believe
the writers Of the article Phnnicia
10 the last edition of the Encvcloppdia
britannica style it "a mere bIunder
An English traveller. however. has verv
recently made discoveries in the raj.
rem island 8 in the Persian Gulf which.
lender 1t almost certain that the great
historian was right,
these islands are a small proun "
ing about twenty miles off the Arabian
coast, and were formerly of great com.
mercIal importance. The Inhabitants.
besides possessing a pearl fishery
which was noted in the davs of Alex
ahder the Great, and now produces
the hnest pearls in the world. carried
ou an important trade with Arabia and
Persia. This they have almost entirely
lost, but with the construction of tbo
Euphrates Railway it will doubtless
spring up again,
One of the two principal towns has
singular water-supply in a sprinq
which at high water Is six feet below
ihe surface of the sea. Water iq
brought up either by divers who 90
down with skins, or by pushing a hol-
low bamboo down into It. At low tide
there is very little water over II and
women with large amphorae and goat.
SKINS, which look very real and life
like, though headless, wade ont md
1etch what water they require" The
Arabs believe that this and several
other similar springs on the coast come
from the Euphrates, which thev think
flows beneath the Persian Gnlf IN nm
underground channel, a legend as old
as the days of Pliny.
In the northern part of the largest
island, which is twenty-seven miles
long by ten broad there is a very ro.
markable collection of sepulchral
mounds, covering an area Of many
miles. Some of these are elevated
only lew feet above the level of the
desert. Others are more than forty
ieet high, and about four hundred feet
Ia circumference. Several of these
nave recently been excavated by Mr..
y theodore Bent, well-known Eng
lsh traveller, who has given an account
81 ms discoveries to the ROYAL Geo. (
graphical Society.
lie says that they consist of two
chambers, the one above the other. as
S the case with some Phmnician tombs
ust uncovered IN ancient Carthage.
In the upper chamber of one which he
Examined were the bones of an animal
a horse, and innumerable
fragments of lyory-boxes, ornaments.
1its OF small statues. Many of these
fragments were ornamented with pat
erns which bear close and unmi,-
akable resemblance to worries found
n Phgnician tombs on the Mediter-
anean. Our readers will doubtless
emember that King Solomon got ivory
y means Of the ships Of Hiram, the
'hgnician king of Tyre.
The lower chamber was more care