2-<is.vi.i35.,JuLY3i.m] NOTES AND QtlERlES. 



83 



obvious interpretation of which supposes them to 

 have reached the southern hemisphere. Upon 

 this statement, however, which is the main title of 

 the story to acceptance, two remarks may be 

 made. In tlie first place, Herodotus himself as- 

 cended the Nile as far as Elephantine (ii. 29.) ; 

 and Elephantine is opposite Syene, which is nearly 

 within the tropic, and which contained afterwards 

 I the celebrated well. Now if Herodotus himself 

 ! had visited a place where the shadows were ver- 

 tical at the solstice, it is not unlikely that he may 

 have obtained the story of Neco's expedition from 

 persons who might conceive that a sufficient pro- 

 gress southward would bring the navigator to a 

 region where the shadows at noon inclined from 

 north to south. In the next place, Nearchus, 

 the admiral of Alexander the Great, in the de- 

 scription of his coasting-voyage from the mouth 

 of the Indus to the Persian Gulf, stated that in 

 a part of his course the shadows were either ver- 

 tical or fell to the south (Arrian, Ind. c. 25.). 

 Now, when we consider that Nearchus could not 

 have been south of 25° north latitude, which is 

 north of the tropic, and of the latitude c4" Ele- 

 phantine (24° N.), we can easily conceive that 

 the informants of Herodotus may have imagined 

 for the PhcEnician navigators of Neco a physical 

 phenomenon to which the Nile above Elephantine 

 afibrded an approximation, and which Nearchus ' 

 declared himself to have actually witnessed at a 

 higher latitude (see Vincent, ib. vol. i. pp. 222. 

 304.). Onesicritus, who accompanied Alexander 

 in his expedition, likewise stated that there were 

 certain parts of India, — he specified one to the 

 north of the Hyphasis or Sutledge, — where the sun 

 was vertical at the solstice, and there were no 

 shadows. (These places were called by him ocrxiot.) 

 He declared moreover that in these districts the 

 constellation of the Great Bear was never visible 

 (Plin. ii. 75., vii. 2.). Pliny also reports that at 

 Mount Maleus, in the territory of the Oretes in 

 India, the shadows fall to the south in summer, 

 and to the north in winter ; that at the port of 

 Pattala (Tatta on the Indus) the sun rises to the 

 right, and the shadows fall to the south (ii. 75.). 

 Eratosthenes affirmed that in the country of the 

 Troglodytes, on the south-eastern coast of the Red 

 Sea, the shadows fell to the south for forty-five 

 days before and for the same period after the 

 solstice (Plin. ii. 75, 76., vi. 34.). 



Some ambassadors from the island of Tupro- 

 bane, or Ceylon, who came to Rome in the time of 

 the Emperor Claudius, are represented by Pliny as 

 having expressed their wonder that the shadows 

 fell to the north and not to the south ; and that 

 the sun rose to the left, and not to the right (Plin. 

 vi. 24.) ; although, as Dr. Vincent remarks, they 

 must have annually witnessed that phenomenon, 

 when the sun was south of the equator (vol. ii. 

 p. 4'J2.), 



These examples prove that the imagination of 

 the ancients was active in conceiving the solar 

 phenomena of the northern hemisphere to be re- 

 versed, even in districts which lay to the north ot 

 the tropics. It may be observed thai the ancients 

 had likewise heard accounts of the long polar 

 nights, which they transferred to latitudes in which 

 this phenomenon did not exist. Thus Cajsar states 

 that the smaller islands near Britain had been 

 reported by some writers to be continually dark 

 for thirty days in winter. He adds, that on in- 

 quiry he was unable to confirm this statement ; 

 but he ascertained by means of water clocks that 

 the nights in Britain were shorter than on the 

 continent {B. G. v. 13.). One of the stories of 

 Pytheas, respecting his fictitious island of Thule, 

 was that it had six months of continual light, and 

 six months of continual darkness (Plin. ii. 77., 

 Mela, iii. 6.). 



It may be remarked that the Romans under 

 the empire are said to have penetrated very far 

 into Africa by land : thus, P. Petronius, prefect 

 of Egypt in the time of Augustus, is stated to 

 have marched 970 miles south of Sj'cne (Plin. vi. 

 35.) ; Ptolemy likewise describes two other Ro- 

 man officers, as having by marches of three or four 

 months respectively, reached a district south of 

 the equator (i. 8. 5., Vincent, vol. ii. p. 243.). It 

 is not impossible that the Egyptians may at an 

 early time have ascended far into the interior of 

 Africa ; and' in navigating the Red Sea, they 

 would soon have passed the tropic. 



On the whole, we may safely assent to the posi- 

 tion of Dr. Vincent, that " a bare assertion of the 

 performance of any voyage, without consequences 

 attendant or connected, without collateral or con- 

 temporary testimony, is too slight a foundation to 

 support any superstructure of importance " {ih. 

 p. 307.) ; and we may conclude that the circum- 

 navigation of Africa in the time of Neco is too 

 imperfectly attested, and too improbable in itself, 

 to be regarded as a historical fiict. G. C. Lewis. 



EARLr TRIBUTE TO THE GENIUS OF MILTON, 



The following from a collection of poems pub- 

 lished 1689, is said to be the earliest laudatory 

 acknowledgment of his immortal genius. It is 

 extracted from a pastoral dialogue between 

 Thyrsis and Corydon, entituled a Propitiatory Sa- 

 crifice to the Ghost of J M . The great 



poet is alluded to under the name of Daphnis: — 



" Daphnis ! the Great Reformer of our Isle, 

 Daphnis! the patron of the Roman stile, 

 Who lirst to sense converted doggrel rhymes, 

 The muses' bells took off, and stopped their chimes. 

 On surer wings, with an immortal llight, 

 Taught us how to believe and how to write; 

 And could we but have reached his wondrous height, 

 We'd chang'd the constitution of our state, 



