Chap. VS.] SHADOWS. 107 



CHAJ. 75. (73.) — WHEN AND WHEEE THEEE AEE NO 

 SHADOWS. 



It is likewise said, that in the town of Syene, which is 

 6000 stadia south of Alexandria^ there is no shadow at noon, 

 on the day of the solstice ; and that a well, which was sunk 

 for the purpose of the experiment, is illuminated by the sun 

 in every part. Hence it appears that the sun, in this place, 

 is vertical, and Onesicritus informs us that this is the case, 

 about the same time, in India, at the river Hypasis*. It is 

 well known, that at Berenice, a city of the TroglodytsB, and 

 4820 stadia beyond that city, in the same country, at the 

 town of Ptolemais, which was built on the lied Sea, when 

 the elephant was first hunted, this same thing takes place 

 for forty-five days before the solstice and for an equal length 

 of time after it, and that during these ninety days the shadows 

 are turned towards the south ^. Again, at Meroe, an island 

 in the Nile and the metropolis of the ^Ethiopians, which is 

 5000 stadia'' from Syene, there are no shadows at two periods 

 of the year, 'viz. when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus 

 and in the 14th of Leo*. The Oretes, a people of India, have 

 a mountain named Maleus*, near which the shadows in sum- 



6th book, ch. 39, makes the shadow at Ancona ^ greater than the gnomon, 

 wliile, in Venetia, which is more northerly, he says, as in the present 

 chapter, that the shadow and the gnomon are equal in length. See the 

 remarks of M. Alexandre in Lemaire, ut supra. 



^ This woxUd be about 625 miles. Strabo, ii. 114, and Luean, ii. 587, 

 give the same distance, which is probably nearly correct. Syene is, 

 however, a Httle to the north of the tropic. 



2 This remark is not correct, as no part of this river is between the 

 tropics. For an account of Onesicritus see Lemaire, i. 203, 204. 



* " In meridiem umbras jaci." M. Ajasson translates this passage, " les 

 ombres tombent pendant quatre-vingt-dix jours sur le point central du 

 meridien." ii. 165. But I conceive that Holland's version is more cor- 

 rect, " for 90 days' space all the shadows are cast into the south." i. 36. 



The remarks of M. Alexandre are to the same eflfect ; " ut bis solem 



in zenitho haberet (Ptolemais), Mail mensis et Augusti initio ; interea 

 vero, solem e septemtrione haberet." Lemaire, i. 393. 



* About 625 miles. 



* These days correspond to the 8th of May and the 4th of August 

 respectively. 



" There is considerable uncertainty respecting the identity of this moim- 

 taia J our author refers to it in a subsequent part of his work, where it is 



