248 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [ Feb. 4, 
ing, if the ladder is bent in some uncertain degree, still leaves great 
uncertainty in the place of its top. The other eclipse is that of 
Agathocles, B.C. 310, August 15, which will leave little uncertainty 
of that kind, if we can but determine its exact place upon the 
earth. 
Agathocles, the Lecturer stated, being blockaded by the Cartha- 
ginians in Syracuse, placed men on board a fleet, ready to escape on 
the first opportunity ; the approach of a provision-fleet drew off the 
Carthaginian ships, and Agathocles burst out of the harbour, and 
was pursued by the Carthaginians, but escaped. The next morning 
there was an eclipse of the sun which was evidently total. After 
six days he landed in the Carthaginian territories at a place called 
the Quarries, and, traversing their provinces, reduced the citizens of 
Carthage to the utmost difficulty, (in their terror they sacrificed 500 
children to their god Kronos). The Lecturer acknowledged his 
obligations to Capt. W. H. Smyth, R.N. who had called his atten- 
tion to the enormous quarries at Alhowareah (Aquilaria) under Cape 
Bon, from which Utica and Carthage were built ; which place ap- 
pears to have been used by the Romans as a landing-place from 
Sicily ; and which the Lecturer adopted without doubt as the landing- 
place of Agathocles. He then stated that from J. W. Bosanquet 
Esq., he had received the suggestion that Agathocles might have 
passed the Strait of Messina; and that gentleman had pointed out 
the passages in the historical accounts which indicated the belief of 
the sailors that they were going either to Italy or to Sardinia. The 
Lecturer stated that, on minute examination, he had found that only 
the city of Gela remained in alliance with Syracuse, and the 
provision-fleet must have come from Gela, and must have ap- 
proached Syracuse from the south, and from this it followed that 
Agathocles must have escaped to the north. This brings the 
probable position of Agathocles at the time of the eclipse near to 
Messina ; if it were still supposed (as had been formerly supposed) 
that he sailed to the south, his position would probably have been 
near to Cape Passaro. The Lecturer explained the small corrections 
which must be made in the Greenwich determination of the place of 
the moon’s node to satisfy these two conditions: and these were 
then taken as bases for the investigations connected with the eclipse 
of Thales. 
The armies which were confronted at the time of the eclipse 
of Thales were evidently large armies (from the circumstances 
that they were commanded by the kings in person, who were 
ready to make a treaty on the spot, and that their principal allies, 
Syennesis and Labynetus, were present). And the principal ques- 
tion to be answered is, where such armies were likely to march. 
The Lecturer called attention to the general form of Mount Taurus 
and Anti-taurus (as one part is sometimes called), ranging from 
the mountains in the south of Asia Minor, in a general north- 
eastern direction, till they joined the mountains about Trebizond 
