166 History of Nature. [BOOK VI. 



hath set down the passage from the Sicilian Strait to Alex- 

 andria at 1250 Miles. But the whole . Circuit through the 

 above-said Gulfs, from the point where we began to the Lake 

 Moeotis, summed together, is 15,600 Miles. Artemidorus 

 added thereto 756 Miles. And the same Geographer 

 writeth, that with Moeotis it cometh to 17,390 Miles. This 

 is the measure of unarmed Men, and the peaceful boldness 

 of such as have not feared to provoke Fortune. Now 

 are we to compare the greatness of each part, in spite of 

 the Difficulty produced by the Disagreement of Authors. 

 But most easily will this appear if we join Longitude and 

 Latitude together. According to this prescribed rule the 

 Magnitude of Europe is 8148 Miles. Africa (taking the 

 middle Computation between them all that have set it down) 

 containeth in Length 3748 Miles. The Breadth of so much 

 as is inhabited in no Place exceedeth 250 Miles. Agrippa 

 would have it to contain 910 Miles in Breadth, beginning at 

 the Bounds of Cyrene, and comprehending in this Measure 

 the Deserts thereof as far as to the Garamantse, so far as 

 they are known ; and then the whole Measure collected into 

 one sum amounted to 4608 Miles. Asia 1 is allowed to be in 

 Length 63,750 Miles ; and its Breadth is truly reckoned 

 from the Ethiopian Sea to Alexandria, situated near the 

 Nile, so that the Measurement runs through Meroe and 

 Syrene, 1875 Miles; whereby it appeareth that Europe is 

 little wanting of being half as large again as Asia : and the 

 same Europe is twice as much again as all Africa, and a 

 sixth part over. Reduce now all these sums together, and it 

 will be found clear that Europe is a third part of the whole 

 Earth, and something more than an eighth Portion over; 

 Asia a fourth part, with a fourteenth; and Africa a fifth, 

 with an over-plus of a sixtieth portion. To this Calculation 

 we will add one sentence of Greek invention, which sheweth 



1 Pliny's ignorance of the extent of Africa is pardonable, for he knew 

 no more of it than the small portion which had come under the Roman 

 dominion ; but in his account of Asia he contradicts what he has already 

 assigned to India, which is only a part of it, but which he truly repre- 

 sented to be larger than Europe. Wern. Club. 



