xli 



AUaUST, 1899. 



HISTORICAL SECTION. 



The second meeting of the Historical and 

 'Geographical Section in connection with 

 the Royal Society of Tasmania took place 

 on Tuesday evening, August 1, 1899, the 

 President (the Right Rev. H. H. Mont- 

 gomery, D.D.), presiding. 



There were present a large number of 

 members. 



The Hon. Secretaky read apologies 

 from Professor W. Jethro Brown, IvI.A., 

 and Mr. A. Mault, regretting that, owing 

 to prior engagements, they were unable to 

 be present. 



EXHIBITS. 



The President drew attention to an in- 

 teresting exhibit that he had received from 

 Khartoum. The collection consisted of a 

 complete outfit of a Baggai'a horseman, 

 sent by Colonel Broadwood, comxiaanding 

 the Egyptian cavalry at Omdurman — the 

 dress, cap, sword, and a large lance 12ft. 

 in length. 



The Secretary laid on the table some 

 very interesting documents relating to the 

 early days of Tasmania that the President 

 had secured for the section, 



papers. 

 Mr. J. B. Walker, F.R.G.S., vice-presi- 

 dent of the section, read a most interest- 

 ing paper entitled "The Cartography of 

 the Terra Australis and New Holland." 

 Mr. Walker said : — Homer represents 

 the earth as a flat surface, somewhat 

 of the form of an oval shield, sur- 

 rounded by the great flowing salt river 

 Oceanus, called by Milton " Ocean 

 Stream." (See map to Gladstone's " .Ju- 

 ventus Mundi.") The knowledge of the 

 Ancients was almost wholly limited to 

 the Mediterranean and its shores, with 

 some vague information as to the Red Sea 

 and Persian Gulf. Any ideas they had 

 respecting the outer world were probably 

 derived from the Phoenicians, the most 

 adventurous mariners of those early ages. 

 That they suspected the existence of a world 

 beyond the great encircling river is shown 

 by Plato's description in the " Timaeus" 

 of the island of Atlantis, beyond the Pillars 

 of Hercules, and exceeding in size the 

 whole of Africa and Asia. I quote from 

 Jowett's translation : "In those days the 

 Atlantic was navigable ; and there was an 

 island situated in front of the stx-aits which 

 you call the Columns of Hercules ; the 

 island was larger than Libya and Asia put 

 together, and was the way to other islands, 

 and from the islands you might pass to the 

 whole of the opposite continent which sur- 

 rounded the true ocean After- 

 wards there occurred violent earthquakes 

 and floods, and in a single day and night 



of rain, the island of Atlantis disappeared 

 and was sunk beneath the sea. And that 

 is the reason why the sea in those parts 

 is impassable and impenetrable, because 

 there is such a quantity of shallow mud in 

 the way, and this was caused by the sub- 

 sidence of the island."— .Jowett's Plato, ii. 

 521. Of more interest with respect to 

 the Southern Continent is a curious 

 fragment from an old Greek ^'s'riter of 

 about the same period, c. 350 B.C., 

 which has been preserved for us by 

 ^lian, and which is quoted by Major 

 in his " Eai-ly Voyages to Terra Aus- 

 tralis," p. iii. This writer, one Theo- 

 pompus, narrates a conversation between 

 the god Silenus and King Midas of 

 Phrygia. " Silenus told Midas of certain 

 islands, named Europe, Asia, and Libya, 

 which the Ocean Sea circumscribeth and 

 compasseth round about, and that without 

 this world there is a continent or parcel of 

 dry land, which in greatness was infinite 

 and unmeasurable ; that it nourished and 

 maintained, by the benefit of the green 

 meadows and pasture plots, sundry big 

 and mighty beasts ; that the men which 

 inhabit the same climate exceed the 

 stature of us twice, and yet the 

 length of their life is not equal 

 to ours; that there be many and divers 

 great cities, manifold orders and trades of 

 living ; that their laws statutes and 

 ordinances are diff"erent, or rather clean 

 contrary to ours." It must not be sup- 

 posed tliat the Greek philosophers of the 

 age of Plato and Theopompus still held 

 Homer's opinion that the earth was a flat 

 surface. The Greek intellect had early 

 arrived at a true conception of the earth's 

 form. Says Aristotle. — "As to the figure 

 of the earth it must necessarilj^ be a 

 sphere." He estimated its circumference 

 at 400,000 stadia. He further remarks : 

 "We may judge that those persons who 

 connect the region in the neighbourhood 

 of the Pillars of Hercules with that to- 

 wards India, and who assert in this way 

 that the sea is one, do not assert things 

 very improbable." (Whewell, Hist. Ind. 

 Sci. i., 161.) We have the works of several 

 Greek geographers befoi-e the Christian 

 era, of whom the best known is Strabo, 

 who in 17 books gives a description 

 of the whole knov^'n world. With 

 the growth of the Roman dominion 

 knowledge of the earth's surface was 

 necessarily largely extended. We have 

 the result in the celebrated geography of 

 Ptolemy (130 a.d.) containing a very careful 

 typographical account of the various 

 countries. His work was illustrated by 

 very tolerable maps, said to have been 

 executed by Agathodemon. It is perhaps 

 to be regretted that Ptolemy did not con- 

 fine himself to known facts about the 



