O'itEiLLY — Jlile-sian Colonization relative to Gold-mining. 49 



and the rainiite description of the mining process contained in Job 

 (cap. X5T1II., 1-11) has probably been derived from a sight of Phoeni- 

 cian mining Tvorks. Theu' architecture seems to hare been of a 

 Cyclopean character." In the article "Ship,"' it is stated: — "The 

 Phoenicians, at an early date, constructed merchant vessels capable of 

 carrying cargoes, and of traversing the length and breadth of the 

 llediterranean, perhaps even of trading to the far Cassiterides, and of 

 the circumnavigating Africa." 



Pa the article fi'om " Chambers' Encyclopedia," already cited, it is 

 stated : — " The iuternal arrangement of their vessels was perfect, and 

 excited the wonder and admiration of the Greeks, by their beiag so 

 splendidly adapted at once for navigation, freight, and defence." 



Pa the article on "Phoenicia,"- it is said: — "The beginnings of 

 navigation lie beyond all human memory, but it is not hard to under- 

 stand how the ancients made this also an invention of the Phoenicians, 

 whose skill as seamen was never matched by any ancient people, 

 before or after them. Even in later times, Greek observers noted 

 with admiration the exact order kept on boai'd Phoenician ships, the 

 skill with which every corner of space was utilized, the careful disposi- 

 tion of the cargo, the vigilance of the steersmen and their mates.^ 

 They steered by the polar star, which the Greeks, therefore, called the 

 Phoenician star, and all their vessels from the common round ' gaulos ' 

 (or galley) to the great Tarshish ships of the ancient world had a speed 

 which the Greeks never rivalled. It was they, in fact, who from the 

 •earliest times, distributed to the rest of the world the wares of Egypt 

 and Babylon.* The great centre of Phoenician colonization was the 

 western half of the ]y!editerranean, and the Atlantic coasts to the 

 right and left of the straits. In especial the trade with Tarshish, 

 that is the region of the Tartessus (Guadalquiver), was what made 

 the commercial greatness of the Phoenicians. IText the Phoenicians 

 ventui'ed further on the ocean, and drew tin from the mines of 

 north-west Spain, or the richer deposits of Cornwall. The rich 

 trade with Spaia led to the colonization of the west. The trading 

 connexions of the Phoenicians reached far beyond their most remote 

 colonies." 



Rawlinson in his " Phoenicia " (1890) states, p. 9 : — " Prom a date 

 which cannot be placed later than the twelfth century B.C., the 

 carrying trade of the world belonged mainly to Phoenicia, which 

 communicated by land with the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates, Ai'menia, 



1 " Encyelop. Br." (1886), p. 806. ^Xen. ^u vni. 11 & «.?. 



"^Ibid. (1885). *" Herodotus, ii."' 



E.I. A. PEOC, SEE. HI., VOL. VI. K 



