xin.] HERODOTUS. 511 



countries of the earth were surrounded by the ocean. Stra.bo, 

 in the first century before Christ, after having shown that 

 Homer favoured this view, brings together in the first chapter 

 of the First Book of his geography reasons in support of it in the 

 following terms : — ■ 



" In all directions in which man has penetrated to the utter- 

 most boundary of the earth, he has met the sea, that is, the 

 ocean. He has sailed round the east coast towards India, the 

 west coast towards Iberia and Mauritia, and a great part of the 

 south and north coast. The remaining portion which has not 

 yet been sailed round in consequence of the voyages which have 

 been undertaken from both sides not having been connected, is 

 inconsiderable. For those who have attempted to circumnavi- 

 gate the earth and have turned, declare that their undertaking 

 did not fail in consequence of their having met with land, but 

 in consequence of want of provisions and of complete timidity 

 .... At sea they could always have gone further. . . . This 

 view (that the earth is surrounded by water) also accords better 

 Avith the phenomena of the tides, for as the ebb and flow are 

 everywhere the same, or at least do not vary much, the cause of 

 this motion is to be sought for in a single ocean." ^ 



But if men were thus agreed that the north coast of Asia and 

 Europe was bounded by the sea, there was for sixteen hundred 

 years after the birth of Christ no actual knowledge of the nature 

 of the Asiatic portion of this line of coast. Obscure statements 

 regarding it, however, were current at an early period. 



While Herodotus, in the forty-fifth chapter of his Fourth 

 Book, expressly says that no man, so far as was then known, had 

 discovered whether the eastern and northern countries of Europe 

 are surrounded by the sea, he gives in the twenty-third and 

 twenty-fourth chapters of the same book the following account 

 of the countries lying to the north-east : — 



" As far as the territory of the Scythians all the land which 

 we have described is an uninterrupted plain, with cultivable 

 soil, but beyond that the ground is stony and rugged. And on 

 the other side of this extensive stone-bound tract there live at 

 the foot of a high mountain-chain men who are bald from their 

 birth, both men and women ; they are also flat-nosed and have 

 large chins. They speak a peculiar language, wear the Scythian 

 dress and live on the fruit of a tree. The tree on which they 

 live is called ronticon, is about as large as the wild fig-tree, 

 and bears fruit which resembles a bean, but has a kernel. 



'^ I quote tliis because tlie movement of tlie tides is still, in our own time, 

 made use of to determine whether certain parts of the Polar seas are 

 connected with each other or not. 



