BOOK II. Lxviii. 171-174 



forth and i'eabsorbing the waters and pasturing and 

 all the moisture that goes to form the clouds, the stars 

 themselves with all their numbers and their mighty 

 size, can be supposed to occupy a space — of what 

 extent, pray ? The freehold owned by that mighty cumatic 

 mass is bound to be enormous — without hmit ! Add '""'"• 

 that of what is left more than half is taken by the 

 sky. For this has five divisions called zones, and all 

 that Hes beneath the two outermost zones that 

 surround the poles at either end — both the pole 

 named from the Seven Oxen and the one opposite 

 to it called after Auster — is all crushed under cruel 

 frost and everlasting cold. In both regions perpetual 

 mist prevails, and a hght that the invisibihty of the 

 milder stars " renders niggardly and that is only white 

 with hoarfrost. But the middle portion of the lands, 

 where the sun's orbit is, is scorched by its flames and 

 burnt up by the proximity of its heat : this is the 

 torrid zone. There are only two temperate zones 

 between the torrid one and the frozen ones, and 

 these have no communication with each other because 

 of the fiery heat of the heavenly body. 



Thus the sky has stolen three quarters of the earth. Encroach- 

 The extent of the trespass of ocean is unascertained ; "^^'j."-^ 

 but even the one portion left to us suffers perhaps an 

 even greater loss, inasmuch as the same ocean, 

 spreading out, as we shall describe **, into a number of 

 bays, advances with its threatening roar so close to 

 the inner seas that there is only a distance of 115 miles 

 between the Arabian Gulf and the Egyptian Sea and 

 of 375 between the Caspian and the Black Sea <^ ; and 

 also with its inner channels through so many seas 

 whereby it sunders Africa, Europe and Asia, it 

 occupies — what area of the land? Calculate more- 



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