TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 51 



When Eucleus, son of Molon, was archon, a comet ap 

 peared towards the north, during the early part of January.* 

 The date of appearance of this comet is believed to have 

 been about B.C. 350. 



Aristotle also says that, when Nicomachus was archon, 

 a comet was seen for a few days, that it appeared about the 

 Equator, and that it did not rise in the evening.! The date 

 of appearance of this comet is believed to have been B.C. 340. 



In De Coelo, ii. c. 12, 292 a, Aristotle says that he had 

 seen the Moon, when half-full, pass under Mars, which was 

 hidden by the dark part of the Moon, and then emerged 

 from the bright part. This occultation of Mars by the Moon 

 occurred, according to Kepler s reckoning, in B.C. 357. 



In B.C. 467 a large stone is said to have fallen at 

 ^Egospotamos. This meteoric stone is mentioned in the 

 Parian Chronicle. Aristotle says that this stone fell by day, 

 and that in the evening of that day a comet appeared. He 

 incorrectly states that the stone had been raised by the wind 

 and then fell down, J 



He mentions, as an instance of a rare phenomenon, that 

 in the region of the Bosphorus two parhelia rose together 

 with the sun and continued to be seen until sunset. 

 Ideler makes a reasonable suggestion to explain how such 

 a report arose, saying that the ancient Greeks used to relate 

 extraordinary phenomena as taking place in the Bosphorus, 

 Black Sea, and Africa, just as modern writers have given 

 accounts of extraordinary phenomena in America and 

 Siberia. || 



Aristotle gives some interesting information about some 

 of the periodic winds of Greece. The Etesian winds, he 

 says, blow from the north after the summer solstice and the 

 rising of the Dog Star, and they blow by day but cease at 

 night. II Some were at a loss to understand why the 

 Etesians, continuous north winds, blew after the summer 

 solstice, while south winds were not produced similarly after 

 the winter solstice, but this, he says, is not reasonable, for 

 the so-called Leuconoti, although they do not blow con 

 tinuously, blow at the season of the year opposite to that at 

 which the Etesians blow.** Early in spring, according to 

 Aristotle, the Ornithise blow ; these winds are gentler than 



* Meteorol. i. c. 6, s. 8. f Ibid. i. c. 7, s. 10. 



I Ibid, i c. 7, s. 9. Ibid. iii. c. 2, s. 6. 



|| Aristot. Meteorol., Leipzig, 1836, vol. ii. pp. 271, 272. 

 IF Meteorol. ii. c. 5, ss. 5 and 7. ** Ibid. ii. c. 5, s. 7. 



