diffused through the circle of the hills." On what account these mines were
shadowed out under the appellation of a Golden Fleece, it is not easy to
explain. Pliny, and some other writers, suppose that the rivers impregnated
with particles of gold were carefully strained through sheeps-skins, or
fleeces; but these are not the materials that would be used for such a
purpose: it is more probable that, if fleeces were used, they were set
across some of the narrow parts of the streams, in order to stop and
collect the particles of gold.

III. It is said that there was an ancient law in Greece, which forbad any
ship to be navigated with more than fifty men, and that Jason was the first
who offended against this law. There can be little doubt, from all the
accounts of the ancients, that Jason's ship was larger than the Greeks at
that period were accustomed to. Diodorus and Pliny represent it as the
first ship of war which went out of the ports of Greece; that it was
comparatively large, well built and equipped, and well navigated in all
respects, must be inferred from its having accomplished such a voyage at
that era.

In their course to the Euxine Sea, they visited Lemnos, Samothrace, Troas,
Cyzicum, Bithynia, and Thrace; these wanderings must have been the result
of their ignorance of the navigation of those seas. From Thrace they
directed their course, without further wanderings, to the Euxine Sea. At
the distance of four or five leagues from the entrance to the sea, are the
Cyanean rocks; the Argonauts passed between them not without difficulty and
danger; before this expedition, the passage was deemed impracticable, and
many fables were told regarding them: their true situation and form were
first explored by the Argonauts. They now safely entered the Euxine Sea,
where they seem to have been driven about for some time, till they
discovered Mount Caucasus; this served as a land mark for their entrance