52 plisy's natubal histout. [Book VI. 



country is more productive of gold and pearls of great size than 

 even India. Eratosthenes has also given the dimensions of 

 this island, as heing seven thousand stadia m length, and fave 

 thousand in hreadth: he states also that there are no cities, hut 

 villages to the number of seven hundred.'' It begins at the 

 Eastern sea, and lies extended opposite to India, east and west. 

 This island was in former times supposed to be twenty days 

 sail from the country of the Prasii," but in later times, where- 

 as the navigation was formerly confined to vessels constructed 

 of papyrus with the tackle peculiar to the NUe, the distance 

 has been estimated at no more than seven daj's"* sail, in re- 

 ference to the speed which can be attained by vessels of our 

 construction. The sea that lies between the island and the 

 mainland is fuU of shallows, not more than six paces m depth ; 

 but in certain channels it is of such extraordinary depth, that no 

 anchor has ever found a bottom. Eor this reason it is that the 

 vessels are constructed with prows at either end ; so that there 

 may be no necessity for tacking while navigating these channels, 

 which are extremely narrow. The tonnage of these vessels is 

 three thousand amphorae.^ In traversing their seas, the people 

 of Taprobane take no observations of the stars, and indeed the 

 Greater Bear" is not visible to them ; but they carry birds out 

 to sea, which they let go from time to time, and so foUow their 

 course as they make for the land. They devote only four 

 months in the year to the pursuits of navigation, and are par- 

 ticularly careful not to trust themselves on the sea during the 

 next hundred days after our summer solstice, for in those seas 

 it is at that time the middle of winter. 



" .Elian makes the Tillages to be 750 in number. 



'* A general term probably, as already stated, for the great peninsula of 

 India, below the Ganges. 



'3 This expression has been relied upon by those who do not admit that 

 Ceylon is identical with the ancient Taprobana. But it is not improbable 

 that the passage here referred to is from Cape Comorin to Ceylon, and not 

 from Cape Bamanan Cor, the nearest part of the continent. In such case, 

 the distance would be sixty-five or srxty-six leagues, and we can easily 

 conceive that Greek vessels, sailing from nine to ten leagues per day, 

 might occupy seven days in making the passage from Cape Comorin, past 

 Bamanan Cor, to the coasts of Ceylon. 



'^ The amphora, as a measure, contained eight congii, or forty-eight 

 sextarii. 



" Or " Septentrio ;" " the Seven Trions,'' which was more especially 

 employed by the nations of Europe for the purposes of navigation. 



