of those causes of rapid deposition operate. The events of the shipwreck, moreover, did not take place in the bay, but in the open sea, at its mouth, where the action of the waves and currents would tend to prevent deposition. From these considerations, I am satisfied that no change in the depth of the sea, caused by siltage, could in any part, which a ship driven in to this part of the coast from Crete, must have passed over, have been perceptible in so rough a measurement as that where the smallest quantity is a fathom.

The rocky point of Koura must anciently have extended farther to the north than it does at present; hence a ship driving into St. Paul's Bay, eighteen centuries ago, must have been nearer the breakers than one at the present day, under the same circumstances, would be. Hence the possibility of passing them unobserved was less then than it is at present; and consequently the agreement between the locality and the narrative even more perfect.

R

APPENDIX.

No. I.

David Urquhart, Esq., M. P., to James Smith, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR,

Invertropach, near Callander,
Dec. 4. 1848.

I should be consulting my own inclination to delay writing to you until I had finished your book, but having arrived at page 51. (89. of this edition), I am compelled to send you what I think you will find to be a confirmation of your exposition. Loutro is an admirable harbour. You open it

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like a box ;-unexpectedly the rocks stand apart, and the town appears within. I have spent a month between Gozo and the main, every day standing off and on. In fact my interest in the East, in navigation, &c., were all connected with the incident to which I refer. I was by accident on board the brig Sauveur," whose first cruise was on that spot, to intercept a Turkish corvette. We were constantly blown off our cruising ground, and although she was a splendid vessel, all we could do was to hold our own. Excepting Loutro, all the other harbours looking to the southward are exposed to the south or east. My acquaintance with Loutro was made in chasing a pirate schooner. We thought that we had cut him off, and that we were driving him right upon the rocks. Suddenly he disappeared, and, rounding in after him, like a change of

scenery, the little basin, its shipping, and the town, all lined and crested with that picturesque people, glittering with arms, revealed themselves. We had instantly to put about, and just escaped. Five minutes more and our decks would have been swept by the long rifles in their dexterous hands. . . .

I think it was at Loutro, that the Isis frigate had the desperate affair in which she lost fifteen men. At all events Loutro was, next to Grabouza the most important piratical station. Believe me, &c.

No. II.

Capt. Spratt, R. N., to James Smith, Esq.

Constantinople, Feb. 13. 1855.

HAVING in 1853 examined generally the south coast of Crete, I was fully convinced that Lutro was the Phenice of St. Paul. For it is the only bay to the westward of Fair Havens in which a vessel of any size could find any shelter during the winter months; and you will see, by the enclosed tracing from Capt. Graves's survey, or rather by Lieutenant Mansell's, when under Capt. Graves in Volage, that by hauling inside of the island, and securing to the south shore of the bay, a vessel is nearly land-locked: S. E. and E. only could endanger her; but with the former, where the fetch is greatest, the wind would not blow home against such a mountain as the White Mountain so immediately over the bay, rising to an elevation of 9000 feet.

For a ship circumstanced as St. Paul's ship was, and in those days of navigation, Lutro Bay would been a desirable place to reach, and I have no doubt, with four anchors, would have been secure there.

Lasea was discovered by me on the coast about two miles

east of Fair Havens. There is a small island, with an ancient causeway nearly reaching it, lying off the site of Lasea. This island served as its port.* Thalassea seems to have been its proper name in ancient authors. The sketch of Schranz is not half a mile from the site, through which Pashley and he must have passed, but did not observe the ruins.

From the Same to the Same.

London, Feb. 28. 1856.

In respect to the gale of wind I met with after starting from Fair Havens for Messara Bay; we left with a light southerly wind and clear sky; every indication of a fine day, until we rounded the cape (Matala), to haul up for the head of the bay. There we saw Mount Ida covered in a dense cloud, and met a strong northerly breeze, one of the summer gales in fact so frequent in the Levant, but which in general are accompanied by terrific gusts and squalls from those high mountains, the wind blowing direct from Mount Ida, as it usually does at this point with all northerly gales, winter and summer; and some such a gale with its accompanying squalls I have no doubt was experienced by St. Paul in the attempt to reach the Port of Phenice; and this I believe to be the explanation of the Euroclydon.

Messrs. Tennent and Brown discovered in 1856 the ruins of an antient city, which still bear the name of Lasea, about five miles to the east of Fair Havens. We can scarcely suppose that any of the cities of Crete, even in its palmiest days, could have extended from it to the ruins discovered by Captain Spratt. The explanation probably is, that the port of Lasea was situated here. There is in fact no shelter nearer. The island mentioned by Captain Spratt is named Trapho by Mr. Brown; the causeway having been observed by Mr. Tennent's party between it and the shore. See p. 262.