BOOK VI. .xxiii. 79-xxiv. 82 



several places in the remainder of the work, and the 

 four satrapies will be described a little below, as at 

 present our mind hastens on to the island of Ceylon. 



But before Ceylon come some other islands : indian 

 Patale, which we have indicated as situated at the 5*71'.' "' 

 very mouth of the Indus, an island of triangular 

 shape, 220 miles in breadth ; and outside the mouth 

 of the Indus Chryse and Argyre, both of which I 

 beheve to be rich in minerals — for I find it hard to 

 beUeve the statement of some ^\Titers that they 

 only have gold and silver mines. Twenty miles 

 beyond these is Crocala, and 12 miles further Bibaga, 

 which is full of oysters and other shell-fish, and then 

 Coralliba 8 miles beyond the above-mentioned 

 island, and many of no note. 



XXn^ Ceylon, under the name of the Land of the Ceyion. 

 Counterlanders," was long considered to be another 

 world ; but the epoch and the acliievements of 

 Alexander the Great supplied clear proof of its 

 being an island. Onesicritus, a commander of 

 Alexandcr's navy, wTitcs that elephants are bred 

 there of larger size and more warhke spirit than in 

 India; and Megasthenes says that it is cut in two 

 by a river, that the inhabitants have the name of 

 Aborigines, and that they produce more gold and 

 large pearls than the Indians. Eratosthenes further 

 givcs the dimensions * of the island as 875 miles in 

 length and 625 miles in breadth, and says that it 

 contains no cities, but 700 villages. Beginning at 

 the eastern sea it stretches along the side of India 

 from east to west ; and it was formerly beheved to 

 be a distance of 20 days' sail from the nation of the 

 Prasii,<= but at later times, inasmuch as the voyage 

 to it used to be made with vessels constructed of 



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