“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 and below the forts.’  From this statement I must venture to express my dissent, with diffidence indeed, but with diffidence diminished by the ease with which the fact may be established.  The strait is widened so considerably above the forts by the Bay of Maytos, and the bay opposite to it on the Asiatic coast, that the distance to be passed by a swimmer in crossing higher up would be, in my poor judgment, too great for any one to accomplish from Asia to Europe, having such a current to stem.

“I conclude by expressing it as my humble opinion that no one is bound to believe in the possibility of Leander’s exploit, till the passage has been performed by a swimmer, at least from Asia to Europe.  The sceptic is even entitled to exact, as the condition of his belief, that the strait be crossed, as Leander crossed it, both ways within at most fourteen hours.