For the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a> flowing from Europe and falling into the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pontus&groupId=910&placeId=1634">Pontus</a> by several mouths, a bank formed of the matter discharged from these mouths and reaching out to sea for a day\'s journey, stretches for about a hundred miles opposite them,
and ships navigating the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pontus&groupId=910&placeId=1634">Pontus</a>, while still far out at sea, often at night when sailing unwarily run aground on certain parts of this belt, which are known to sailors as "The Paps."
The reason why the deposit is not formed closer to land but is projected so far with must consider to be as follows.
As far as the current of the rivers prevail owing to their strength and force a way through the sea, the earth and all other matter carried down by the stream must continue to be pushed forward and not suffered to rest or subside at all; but when owing to the increasing depth and volume of the sea the rivers lose their force, then of course the earth sinks by its natural weight and settles.
This is why in the case of large and swift rivers the deposits are formed at a distance, the sea near the coast being deep, but in that of small and sluggish streams the sand-banks are close to their mouths.
This becomes especially evident during heavy rains; for then insignificant streams when they have overpowered the surge at their mouths push forward their mud out to sea for a distance exactly proportionate to the force of their currents.
We must not at all refuse to believe in the extent of the bank at the mouth of the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a> and in the quantity of stones, timber, and earth carried down by the rivers in general.
It would be folly to do so when we often see with our own eyes an insignificant torrent scooping out a bed and forcing its way through high ground, carrying down every kind of wood, stones, and earth and forming such vast deposits that the spot may in a short space of time be so changed in aspect as to be unrecognizable.
Walbank Commentary