XX11 NOTES. 



( 109 ) p. 53. The passage of Aristotle referred to by Buffon is in a book 

 where one would least have looked for it in the De generat. animal, v. 1, 

 p. 780, Bekker. Closely translated, it is as follows : " Keen sight means, 

 on one side, the power of seeing far ; and, on the other, an exact recognition of 

 the differences between the things seen. Both are not the case at the same 

 time in the same person ; for a man holding his hand above his eyes, or 

 looking through a tube, is not more or less able to judge of the difference 

 Between colours, but he will be able to see objects at a greater distance. 

 Thus also it happens that those who are in vaults or cisterns sometimes see 

 stars from them." Qp\ry(j.a.ra, and especially <ppeara, are subterranean cisterns 

 or well-chambers, which, in Greece, are so constructed (as an eye-witness, 

 Professor Franz, remarks) as to communicate with the air and light by a 

 perpendicular shaft, widening below like the neck of a bottle. Pliny (Lib. ii. 

 cap. 14) says " Altitude cogit minores videri stellas j affixas coelo Solis 

 fulgor interdiu non cerni, quum acque ac noctn luceant : idque manifestnm 

 fiat defectu Soils et prcealtis puteis" Cleomedes (CycL Theor. p. 83, Bake) 

 does not speak of stars being seen in the day-time, but he states "that the 

 Sun, seen from deep cisterns, appears larger by reason of the darkness and the 

 damp air." 



( no ) p. 54. " We have ourselves heard it stated by a celebrated optician, 

 that the earliest circumstance which drew his attention to astronomy, was 

 the regular appearance, at a certain hour, for several successive days, of a 

 considerable star through the shaft of a chimney" (John Herschel, Outlines 

 of Astronomy, f 61). The chimney-sweepers from whom I have inquired, 

 say pretty uniformly, " that they never see stars in the day-time ; but that 

 at night the sky seen through tall chimneys looks quite near, and the stars 

 seem larger." I forbear from any consideration of the connection between 

 these two illusions. 



^iii) p . 54. Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes (Neuchatel, 1779, 4to.) T. iv. 

 $ 2007, p. 199. 



( 112 ) p. 55. Humboldt, Essai sur la Geographic des Plantes, p. 103. 

 Compare also my Voy. aux Regions equinox. T. i. p. 143 and 248. 



( 113 ) p. 56. Humboldt, in Baron Zach's Monatlicher Correspondenz zur 

 Erd- und Himmels-kunde, Bd. i. 1800, S. 396 ; and in Voy. anx Regions 

 equin. T. i. p. 125. " On croyoit voir de petites fusees lancees dans Fair. Des 

 points lumineux, eleves de 7 a 8 degres, paroissoient d'abordsemouvoir dans 

 le sens vertical, mais puis se convertir en une veritable oscillation horizontale. 

 Ces points lumineux etoient des images de plusieurs etoiles agrandies (en 



