136 COSMOS. 



In the enumeration of the elements of an extended knowl- 

 edge of the universe, which were early brought to the Greeks 

 from other parts of the Mediterranean basin, we have hither- 

 to followed the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in their inter- 

 course with the northern tin and amber lands, as well as in 

 their settlements near the tropics, on the west coast of Africa. 

 It now, therefore, only remains for us to refer to a voyage of 

 the Pho3nicians to the south, when they proceeded 4000 geo- 

 graphical miles east of Cerne and Hanno's Western Horn, far 

 within the tropics, to the Prasodic and Indian Seas. What- 

 ever doubt may exist regarding the localization of the distant 

 gold lands (Ophir and Supara), and whether these gold lauds 

 are the western coasts of the Indian Peninsula or the eastern 

 shores of Africa, it is, at any rate, certain that this active, 

 enterprising Semitic race, who so early employed alphabetical 

 writing, had a direct acquaintance with the products of the 

 most different climates, from the Cassiterides to the south of 

 the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, far within the tropics. The 

 Tyrian flag floated simultaneously in the British and Indian 

 Seas. The Phoenicians had commercial settlements in the 

 northern parts of the Arabian Gulf, in the ports of Elath arid 

 Ezion-Geber, as well as on the Persian Gulf at Aradus and 

 Tylos, where, according to Strabo, temples had been erected, 

 which, in their style of architecture, resembled those on the 

 Mediterranean.* The caravan trade, which was carried on 

 by the Phoenicians in seeking spices and incense, was directed 

 to Arabia Felix, through Palmyra, and to the Chaldean or 

 Nabatheeic Gerrha, on the western or Arabian side of the Per- 

 sian Gulf. 



The expeditions sent by Hiram and Solomon, and which 

 were undertaken conjointly by Tyrians and Israelites, sailed 

 from Ezion-Geber through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to 

 Ophir (Opheir, Sophir, Sophora, the Sanscrit Supara of Ptol- 

 emy).! Solomon, who loved pomp, caused a fleet to be con- 

 times greater than the elevation of ^Etna. If. however, we might as- 

 sume, as my friend Professor Encke has remarked, the reflecting sur- 

 face to be 184 miles from ^Etna and 168 miles from Taygetos, its height 

 above the sea would only require to be 1829 feet. 



* Strabo, lib. xvi., p. 767, Casaub. According to Polybius, it would 

 seem that the Euxine and the Adriatic Sea were discernible from 

 Mount Aimou an assertion ridiculed by Strabo (lib. vii., p. 313) 

 Compare Scymnus, p. 93. 



t On the synonym of Ophir, see my Examen Crit. de I'Hist. de la 

 Gtographie, t. ii., p. 42. Ptolemy, in lib. vi., cap. 7, p. 156, speaks of 

 a Sapphara, the metropolis of Arabia ; and in lib. vii., cap. 1, p. 168, of 



