PRELUDE. 31 



'ocean-river, goes into the region of fable, where it 

 is not easy to demonstrate that he is wrong. I 

 know of no such river. But I suppose that Homer 

 or some of the earlier poets invented this fiction 

 and introduced it into their poetry." 



He then proceeds to a third account, which to a 

 modern reasoner would appear not at all unphilo- 

 sophical in itself, but which he, nevertheless, rejects 

 in a manner no less decided than the others. " The 

 third opinion, though much the most plausible, is 

 still more wrong than the others ; for it asserts an 

 impossibility, namely, that the Nile proceeds from 

 ,the melting of the snow. Now the Nile flow r s out 

 of Libya, and through Ethiopia, which are very hot 

 countries, and thus comes into Egypt, which is* a 

 Bolder region. How then can it proceed from 

 snow?" He then offers several other reasons "to 

 show," as he says, " to any one capable of reasoning 



On Such Subjects" (dvSpi ye \oyt(e<jQai TOIOVTWV trepi 



oiia TC eovrt), that the assertion cannot be true. The 

 winds which blow from the southern regions are 

 hot; the inhabitants are black; the swallows and 

 kites (IKT'IVOI) stay in the country the whole year; 

 the cranes fly the colds of Scythia, and seek their 

 warm winter-quarters there; which would not be 

 if it snowed ever so little." He adds another reason, 

 founded apparently upon some limited empirical 

 maxim of weather-wisdom taken from the climate 

 of Greece. " Libya," he says, " has neither rain nor 

 ice, and therefore no snow ; for, in five days after a 



