134 History of Nature. [ BOOK II. 



to the Power [of the Moon] : for there are many Examples 

 of those who, in a calm Sea, without Wind and Sail, by a 

 strong Current only, have passed from Italy to Utica in three 

 Days. But these Motions are found about the Shores more 

 than in the deep Sea; just as in our Bodies the extreme 

 Parts have a greater Feeling of the Beating of Arteries, or in 

 other Words, the vital Spirits. Yet notwithstanding in many 

 Estuaries of the Sea, because of the unequal Risings of the 

 Planets in every Coast, the Tides are diverse, and disagreeing 

 in Time ; but not in their Cause ; as particularly in the Syrtes. 

 And yet some there be that have a peculiar Nature ; as the 

 Firth Taurominitanum, which ebbeth and floweth oftener 

 than twice: and that other in Eubcea, called likewise Eu- 

 npus, which hath seven Tides forward and back in a Day 

 arid Night. And the same Tide three Days in a Month 

 standeth still, namely, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth Days 

 of the Moon's Age. At Gades 1 , the Fountain near the Chapel 

 of Hercules is enclosed about like a Well, which sometimes 

 riseth and falleth with the Ocean ; and at other Times it 

 doth both at contrary Seasons. In the same Place there is 



* Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain, was founded in a very remote 

 age by the Phoenicians, under the conduct of one of their most illustrious 

 chiefs, Melcartus ; whose name is significant of a royal race ; and who has 

 been denominated the Tyrian Hercules, from a supposition that his 

 labours were somewhat similar to those of the son of Alcmena. The city 

 was at this time called Gadira, and in it was a temple devoted to this first 

 of celebrated navigators, but retaining the marks of primitive purity of 

 worship, in having no- image. (Silius Italicus, quoted in Cumberland's 

 " Sanchoniatho.") The Phoenicians were accustomed to select for their 

 colonies such islands as this Spanish peninsula then was, both for pru- 

 dential and religious reasons ; and the city long continued the centre of 

 trade to the British islands and northern regions ; while at the same time 

 it was unknown to the rest of the world. There is even reason to believe, 

 that during the Roman dominion of Europe an intercourse was main- 

 tained between Cadiz and the independent Britons scarcely known to 

 any beside the merchants engaged in it. From an expression of Pliny in 

 chap, cviii. of this book, it would appear that there were at this place two 

 pillars, properly termed the "Pillars of Hercules :" though the name has 

 since been applied to the mountains at the entrance of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. Wern. Club. 



