GEOGRAPHY. 



Oriiments and of aftronomical obfervations, began fiiil 

 to determine the fituation of places according to cli- 

 mates ; and they wer^' led to fix upon thcfe climates 

 from the 'form and colour of certain animals which were 

 to be found in thofc- difFtrent countries. The appearance 

 of negroes, or of thofe called by them Ethiopians, and of 

 animals of the larger fize, fiic!i as the rhinoceros and 

 elephant, fuggefted to them the liire of divifion, where the 

 limits of the Torrid Zone began towards the north, and ter- 

 minated towards the foutli. This grofler manner of di- 

 viding their climates muft be confidered as the firft rude 

 outline of geography in the more illiterate ages of the 

 •Avrld. However this be, the Chaldean" and Egyptians, 

 who were dillinguiflied by their itcill in geometry and 

 ailronomy, were of courfe the firlt perfons tiiat paid any 

 ])articular attention to geography ; and it is faid that the 

 iirll: map was made by order of Sefoilris L who conquered 



^!i>'P?- . . „ . . . . 



This Egyptian king, fays Euuathius in his epif- 



tle, prefixed to his con\mentary on Dicjuyfuis's Tn^ny-.-.Ti:, 

 having traverfed great part of the earth, recorded his 

 marcii in maps, and gave copies of his maps not only to 

 the Egyptians, but to the Scythians, to their great afto- 

 niihment. The Jews alfo feem to have had furveyors 

 among them ; and hence ipme have_ imagined that they had 

 nale a map of the Holy Land, when they gave the dif- 

 ferent portions to the nine tribes at Shiloh. (Jolh. xviii. 

 4. 8. 9.) And Jofephus tells us (1. v. c. I.), that when 

 Jofhua fent out people from the different tribes to mcafure 

 the land, he gave them as companions perfons well in- 

 ftru<Sed in geometry, vvhofe fkill would prevent their de- 

 viating from the truth. We may therefore reafonablv pre- 

 funie that a geometrical furvey was then made of the Ho'y 

 Land; though we cannot abfolutely determine whether 

 their menfuvation was only taken down in numbers, or re- 

 gularlv projected and digefled into a map. 



Betides the method of dividing countries by climates, 

 already mentioned, the Egyptians and Babylonians adopted 

 another, which was that of determining the fituation of 

 glaces, or their dillance from tlie equator, by obferving the 

 length of their longefl and fhortell days. This they pcr- 

 fonned by means of a gnomon, eretled upon a horizontal 

 plane, by which they were enabled to meafure the length or 

 fhortnefs of the fhadow in proportion to the height of 

 the gnomon. For an account of this invention, and 

 of the method of applying it, fee Gnomon. 



From the days of Thales,and his immediate fuccefTors, who 

 flourifhed in the fixth century before Chrift, geography 

 feems to have received little improvement for 200 years, 

 tiir the efhibliftiracnt of the famous fchool of Alexandria ; 

 although Pythagoras and his difciples were rightly in- 

 formed with regard to the true fyftem of the world, as 

 they placed the fun in the centre, and aferibed to the earth 

 both its diurnal and annual revolutions. During this period 

 we have an aflronomical obfervation of confidcrable import- 

 ance to geography, and the firft Greek obfervation upon 

 record ; which is that of Meton and Euftemon, who ob- 

 ferved the fummer folilice at Athens on a day correfpond- 

 ing to the 27th of June, 432 years B. C. This fol- 

 ftitial obfervation niufl have given them an opportunity of 

 determining the latitude of Athens at the fame time, if tiiey 

 had knowa the fimple manner of deducing the conclufion : 

 for as the length of the fhadow of the gnomon was attentively 

 watched at the moment of the folilice, the proportion of 

 that to the gnonion's height was eallly known, by which 

 the an<>-le of the fun's altitude would be <riven ; and though 

 tLe lun's greatell declination was not then accurately known, 



yet ftill the latitude of Athens might have been deter- 

 mined within the limitations of the error refpetling the 

 declination. We have reafon to believe that Timocharis 

 and Ariilillus, who began to obferve 295 years B. C , were 

 the firfl who introduced the manner of determining the 

 pofition of the ftars, according to their longitudes and 

 latitudes taken with refpecl to the equator. This we 

 know from Ptolemy, who has preferred many of their 

 obfervations in his " Almagetl ;'' and particularly one, 

 which gave rife to the famous difcovery of the Prccejftntt 

 of ihc Equinoxes : which fee. It was after the precetilon 

 of the equinoxes was fully etlablifhed by Ptolemy, that 

 the longitudes and latitudes of the ftars were uniformly 

 referred to the ecliptic inllead of tlie equator. It was 

 therefore, by an eafy tranfition, that Hippzrchus would 

 be led to adort and difpofe the difll^rent parts of the earth 

 according to latitude or longitude : this being only a new 

 application or traufpofition of that artinee, which had been 

 already fo iiappily introduced in the arrangement of ti;e 

 conllellations, and therefore equally proper to be adojJted 

 in tracing the meridians and parallels of the earth. Hip- 

 parchus muft be univerfally allowed to have firft fixed the 

 folid foundation of geography by uniting it to aftronomy, 

 and thus rendering its principles felf-evident and invariable. 



Pliny (N. H. I. ii. c. 12.) confirms this, when, after 

 mentioning Thales and Sulpicius Gallus, who had both 

 predicted eclipfes, he adds, "that Hipparchus had foretold 

 the revolution (of the eclipfes) of the fun and moon for 

 600 years, comprehending the months, days, and hours of 

 different nations, and the fituation of places," by which it 

 would feem that the latitudes and longitudes of thefe places 

 were particularly given. But the fulleft and ftrorgefl au- 

 thority for appropriating this invention to Hipparchus, 

 is that of Ptolemy in his " Geography," (l.i c. 4.) 

 who fays, " that Hipparchus was the only author who had 

 given the elevall-.tis cf the- north pole of a feiu cities, in pro- 

 portion to the great number that were to be delineated, 

 and fuch too as lay under the fame parallels, &c. &c." 

 And yet it is fomewhat remarkable that though latitudes 

 and longitudes were in this manner introduced and 

 pointed out by Hipparchus, yet they were fo little at- 

 tended to till the days of Ptolemy, that none of the in- 

 termediate authors, fuch as Strabo, Vitravius and Plinv, 

 all of whom minutely deicribed the geographical fitua- 

 tion of places according to the lengtii and fhadows of the 

 gnomon, have ever given us the leaft hint of the latitude 

 or longitude of any one place whatever in the language- 

 of degrees and minutes. 



When the true principles of geography i^-ere tlius- 

 pointed out by this new invention of latitude and longitude, 

 it was no wonder that maps were from thence made li> 

 afTume a new form of projeiilion cfTentially different from 

 thofe in ufe prior to this period. For the hiftory of thff 

 cofiftruftion cf maps, fee Map. 



It was a conftant cuftom among tlie Romans, af- 

 ter they had conquered and fubdued any provir.ce, 

 to have a map, or painted reprefentation thereof, car- 

 ried in triumph, and expofed to the view of the fpeftators. 

 Thus the Romans, as they were the conquerors, became 

 the furveyors of the world. Every new war produced a new 

 furvey and itinerary of the countries where the fcencs of 

 aftion occurred ; fo that the ir.aterials of geography v.ere 

 accumulated by every additional coiiqueft. Polybius, (1. ^ 

 p. 123. cd. Cafaub.) when he tells us, that at the beginning of 

 the feeond Punic war, Hannibal was prepai"ing liis expedition 

 againll Rome, by croffing from Africa into Spain, and fo 

 through Gaul into Italyj fays, '■• that all thefe places 



were 



