2IO NICOLAUS STENO 



me among its members, that as I am least worthy of so great 

 an honor, so am I most desirous of proving the attempts where- 

 by I am striving to attain some knowledge of the Tuscan 

 tongue. But I am not grieved that the necessity has been 

 placed upon me of postponing that writing; for as my present 

 journey promises me a fuller knowledge of matters serving to 

 elucidate my investigation, so the delay assures me of a happier 

 advancement in my study of the language. 



It would be a long task to write out in detail all my observa- 

 tions, together with the conclusions drawn from them, devel- 

 oped in accordance with the method suggested ; wherefore, I 

 shall report sometimes conclusions, and again observations, as 

 may seem best, in order to explain the chief points briefly, and 

 p. 7. as clearly as possible. 



^ The reason why, in the solution of natural questions, not only 

 do many doubts remain undecided but, for the most part, such 

 doubts multiply with the number of writers, seems to me to 

 depend chiefly upon two causes. 



The first cause is that few take it for granted that all those 

 difficulties, without whose solution the settlement of the ques- 

 tion itself is left marred and incomplete, must be removed. 

 The present inquiry illustrates this point. Only a single diffi- 

 culty vexed the ancients, that is in what way marine bodies had 

 been left in places far from the sea ; and the question was never 

 raised whether similar substances had been produced elsewhere 

 than in the sea.^ 



1 The presence of fossil shells in places remote from the sea is discussed in the Geography 

 of Strabo {circa 67 B.C.-19 A.D.), C. 49, 50 (I. 3, 4) : 



' He (Eratosthenes) says that a particularly interesting subject of inquiry is afforded by the 

 fact that an abundance of cockle, oyster, and scallop shells, and salt-water lakes are frequently 

 seen far inland, two or three thousand stadia from the sea, as in the case of the temple of 

 Ammon and the road leading up to it for a distance of three thousand stadia. For a profusion 

 of oyster shells, salt beds, and salt springs can still be found there at the present time. In 

 addition to this, wrecks of sea-going vessels are pointed out which were said to have been cast 

 up through some chasm. ... 



' In this he agrees with the opinion of Strato, the physicist, and of Xanthus, the Lydian. 

 Xanthus asserts that in the reign of Artaxerxes there was so great a drought that the rivers, 

 lakes, and wells dried up ; and that he had frequently found, far from the sea, fossil shells, 

 some like cockles and others like scallops, as well as salt lakes in Armenia, Matiana, and 

 Lower Phrygia. On this account he was convinced that what are now plains had once been 

 sea. Strato, who searched more deeply for the causes of these phenomena, believed that the 

 Euxine formerly had no outlet at Byzantium, but the rivers which emptied into the Euxine 

 had forced an opening, and that the water thereupon fell into the Propontis and the Hellespont. 



