■^bap. 38.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 109 



hree thousand fonr himdred and thirty- seven miles and a half, 

 md that, starting from the same point,'^ the distance in a 

 ;traight line to Sicily is twelve hundred and fifty miles, from 

 hence to Crete three hundred and seventy-five, to Rhodes one 

 lundred and eighty-seven and a half, to the Chelidonian Islands 

 he same distance, to Cyprus two hundred and twenty-five, 

 nd from thence to Seleucia Pieria, in Syria, one hundred and 

 ifteen miles : the sum of all which distances amounts to two 

 housand three hundred and forty miles. Agrippa estimates 

 his same distance, in a straight line from the Straits of Gades 



the Gulf of Issus, at three thousand three hundred and forty 

 iiiles ; in which computation, however, I am not certain that 

 here is not some error in the figures, seeing that the same 

 uthor has stated that the distance from the Straits of Sicily to 

 llexandria is thirteen hundred and fifty miles. Taking the 

 vhole length of the sea-line throughout the gulfs above-men- 

 ioned, and beginning at the same point,"^ he makes it ten 

 housand and fifty- eight miles ; to which number Artemidorus 

 las added seven hundred and fifty-six : the same author, in- 

 ;luding in his calculation the shores of the Mteotis, makes the 

 ;vhole distance seventeen thousand three hundred and ninety 

 niles. Such is the measurement given by men who have 

 )enetrated into distant countries, unaided by force of arms, 

 md have, with a boldness that exhibits itself in the times of 

 3eace even, challenged, as it were, Fortune herself. 



I shall now proceed to compare the dimensions of the various 

 :)arts of the earth, however great the difficulties which may 

 irise from the discrepancy of the accounts given by various 

 luthors : the most convenient method, however, will be that 

 )f adding the breadth to the length." Following this mode 

 Df reckoning, the dimensions of Europe will be eight thou- 

 sand two hundred and ninety- four miles ; of Africa, to adopt 



1 mean between all the various accounts given by authors, tbe 

 ength is three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four miles, 

 .vhile the breadth, so far as it is inhabited, in no part exceeds 



'''^ The Straits of Gades or Cadiz. 



"^ The Straits of Gades. 



" Littre has the following remark : " Is it possible that Pliny oan have 

 magined that the extent of a surface could ])e a.«certained by adding the 

 ength to the breadth:" It is just possil)le that such may not have 

 lis meaning ; but it seems quite impossible to divine what it was. 



