[s. E. DAweoN] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION SOS 



Putting 'aside Aristotle and Archimedes, they fall into three schools — 

 those who follow Eratosthenes and reckon 700, those who follow 

 Ptolemy and reckon 500 stades to a degree, and those who follow the 

 Arabian measurements. The true length of a degree is 600 stades ; 

 so that one school erred by one hundred stades in excess and another 

 by 100 stades in defect. Lelewel states very confidently that Pytheas 

 of Marseilles estimated the degree at 600 stades ; thus making the 

 circumference of the eiarth 216,000 stades ; the precise equivalent of 

 OUT 21,600 nautical miles. This, if true, would be exceedingly interest- 

 ing ; but after examining Lelewel's authorities, I have not ventured 

 to include Pytheas in the table. 



The science of the Greeks loomed very large to the eyes of the cos- 

 mographers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and they enter- 

 tained the opinion that the Greeks knew the true circumference of the 

 earth and that if the great geographers of antiquity differed in the num- 

 ber of stades at w'hich they estimated it, the difference was caused by 

 their use of stades of various lengths. There was nothing in the Greek 

 writings to suggest any such opinion. The Greek authors used the 

 word "stades" without any qualification and without any apparent fear 

 of being misunderstood ; plainly intending in all their arguments, the 

 Olympic stade of 600 Greek feet, which was the length of the foot-race 

 course at the Olympic games. In the third century of our era, after 

 the work of the geographers was over, there did come into use, in Egypt 

 and in the Asiatic provinces of Eome, a stade of which seven and a half 

 went to the Roman mile. This stade, called the Phileterian stade, 

 affected the measures of the Arabs and its influence appeared in the 

 writings of Alfragan and passed thence into the works of Bacon and 

 D'Ailly and, through them, into the speculations of Columbus. 



The idea of different stades having been used by the Greek cos- 

 mographers is first met with, says Humboldt, in a memoir by Jaime 

 Ferrer to the Spanish sovereigns relative to the line of demarcation. 

 This is an exceedingly interesting document and, as it throws strong 

 light upon the nautical science of the period in review, a translation is 

 given at Appendix D. Ferrer said that the 252,000 stades of Eratos- 

 thenes, tbe 180,000 of Ptolemy and the measurements of Strabo, Alfra- 

 gan and Macrobius were the same in sum ; but that the stades of 

 Ptolemy were larger. (See App. D). Ptolemy, at that time, was an 

 authority not to be gainsaid and yet Ferrer held, with Eratosthenes, 

 that in a degree of a great circle, there were 700 stades of eight to a 

 Eoman mile. This" heroic method of reconciling the ancient authors 

 gained ground in an uncritical age and was advocated later by Delisle, 

 Freret, Gosselin and many others, down to the early years of the present 



