Hamilton. — On our Knowledge of the Oceanic Areas. 167 



by the Phocean colonists of Massilia to the North Sea, under 

 Pytheas, the illustrious astronomer, who at that distant period 

 had determined the latitude of Massilia with such exactitude 

 that twenty centuries after Gassendi found it correct to within 

 a few seconds. On this adventurous voyage Pytheas coasted 

 Britain and crossed to the German coast, the "amber coasts" 

 of the Baltic. It has been claimed that Pytheas attributed tlie 

 tidal phenomena he met with to the influence of the moon, 

 thus anticipating Newton by two thousand years. 



It is probable that the Carthaginian explorer Hunilco had 

 visited or tried to visit the "tin country," and had passed 

 through the straits northward for the purpose ; but there is 

 every reason to believe that any information gained by this 

 expedition was jealously guarded'-^' as long as possible, and 

 that Pytheas had not their experience to assist him. In 

 another direction Nearchus w^as making a famous voyage of 

 discovery under the auspices of Alexander. 



The philosophers of the school of Aristotle came to the 

 conclusion that the earth was a spheroidal body occupying the 

 centre of the universe, round which the other celestial bodies 

 revolve. They were no doubt influenced by the results of the 

 voyages of Euthymenes and Pytheas. They established its 

 spherical form by the fact that all things gravitated towards 

 the centre, and by reference to the shadow of the earth during 

 eclipses. 



The habitable world was confined to the temperate zone : 

 all beyond tlie tropic to the south was uninhabitable from 

 heat, while the land below the Great Bear was uninhabitable 

 fi'om cold. They admitted a temperate zone in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, but do not state if it is inhabited. 



Humboldt believed that the following passage must have 

 had much influence in leading up to the discoveries of 

 Columbus : " It appears," says Aristotle, " those are not so 

 very far wrong who suppose the region about the Pillars of 

 Hercules and that about India to be contiguous, and that 

 there is but one sea (in the part opposite to the inhabited 

 world) ; and they point by way of proof to the elephants, these 

 animals being found in both regions, though at the extremes of 

 the earth, this fact showing that the extremes are really near 

 each other, t 



Aristotle's own researches in the fauna of the ocean were 

 of scientific value, as he named and described more or less 

 minutely 116 kinds of fishes, about twenty-four Crustaceans 

 and worms, about forty Mollusca and Radiates, making a total 

 of 180 species, inhabiting the ^gean Sea. His immortal 



* Clements Markham, R. Geo. Journal, 1893, vol. i., No. G. 

 t Arist., De Coel., ii., 15. 



