the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and the companion of Diana, who changed her into a fountain to deliver her from the pursuit of her lover Alpheus.

a celebrated fountain near the city of Syracuse, in Sicily, famous for the quantity of its waters, and the number of fishes it contained. Many fables were invented by the ancients concerning this fountain. They had also a notion that the river Alpheus ran under or through the waters of the sea, without mixing with them, from Peloponnesus to Sicily. Mr Brydone informs us that it still continues to send forth an immense quantity of water, rising at once to the size of a river, but is entirely abandoned by the fishes it formerly contained in such plenty. Mr Swinburne describes this once famous fountain as a large pool of water near the quay, defended from the sea by a wall, and almost hidden by houses on every other side. The water is not salt, but brackish, and fit for no purpose but washing linen. "Such," says he, "is the celebrated fountain of Arethusa, whose soft, poetical name is known to every reader."