a narrow strait between Asia and Europe, near the Propontis, which received its name from Helle who was drowned there in her voyage to Colchis. It is celebrated for the love and death of Leander, and for the bridge of boats which Xerxes built over it when he invaded Greece. The folly of this great prince is well known in beating and fettering the waves of the sea, whose impetuosity fettered his ships, and rendered all his labours ineffectual. It is now called the Dardanelles. It is about 33 miles long, and in the broadest parts the Asiatic coast is about one mile and a half distant from the European, and only half a mile in the narrowest, according to modern investigation, and the cocks are heard crowing from the opposite shores.

HELEN'S, St., a town of the isle of Wight, in East-Medina, has a bay which runs a considerable way within land, and in a war with France is often the station and place of rendezvous for the royal navy. At the mouth of the bay is that cluster of rocks called the Mixen. It had an old church situated at the extremity of the coast, which was endangered to be washed away, as was a great part of the church-yard, which occasioned a new church to be built in 1719. The priory to which the old church belonged is now converted into a gentleman's seat; is in a remarkably pleasant situation, and commands a fine prospect of Portsmouth and the road at Spithead. St Helen's appears to have been of more consideration in former times than at present.