100 plint's natueal histoet. [Book IL 



pletely round the globe, and divide it, as it were, into two 

 parts \ exclude ns from one part of it, as there is no way open 

 to it on either side. And as the contemplation of these 

 things is adapted to detect the vanity of mortals, it seems 

 incumbent on me to display, and lay open to our eyes, the 

 whole of it, whatever it be, in which there is notliing which 

 can satisfy the desires of certain individuals. 



CHAP. 68. (68.) — ^WHAT PAET OF THE EAETH IS nSIHABITED. 



In the first place, then, it appears, that this should be esti- 

 mated at half the globe^ as if no portion of this half was 

 encroached upon by the ocean. But surrounding as it does 

 the whole of the land, pouring out and receiving aU the other 

 waters, furnishing whatever goes to the clouds, and feeding the 

 stars themselves, so numerous and of such great size as they 

 are, what a great space must we not suppose it to occupy ! 

 This vast mass must fill up and occupy an infinite extent. 

 To this we must add that portion of the remainder which the 

 heavens^ take from us. Por the globe is divided into five 

 parts^, termed zones, and all that portion is subject to severe 

 cold and perpetual frost which is under the two extremities, 

 about each of the poles, the nearer of which is caUed the 

 north, and the opposite the south, pole. In aU these regions 

 there is perpetual darkness, and, in consequence of the aspect 

 of the milder stars being turned from them, the light is ma- 

 lignant, and only like the whiteness which is produced by 

 hoar frost. The middle of the earth, over which is the orbit 

 of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and is con- 

 sumed by being so near the heat. There are only two of the 

 zones wliich are temperate, those which lie between the torrid 

 and the frigid zones, and these are separated from each other, 

 in consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies. 



be incorrect ; the reader who may be disposed to learn the opinions of 

 the commentators on this point, may consult the notes in Foinsinet and 

 Lemaire in loco. 



1 Dividuo globo ; " Eoas partes a vespertinis dividente oceano." Alex- 

 andre in Lemaire, i. 380. 



2 " Jam primum in dimidio computari videtur." 



3 " Coelum ;" the rigour of the climate. 



•* The division of the globe into five zones is referred to by Virgil, G^eor. 

 I 233-239, and by Ovid, Met. i. 45, 46. 



