540° TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
ther Gojam, nor any place that is not. fo pied) can ever 
be taken for that idland.. 
I witz not-pretend to fay that any pofitive proof’ fhould? 
~ be founded upon the aftronomical obfervations of the an- 
cients, unlefs there are circumftances that go hand in hand 
with, and corroborate them; but we fhould be ata very: 
great lofs indeed, notwithftanding all the diligence of mos 
dern travellers, were we to throw. the celeftial obfervations: 
of the ancients entirely behind'us.. We have, from various. 
concurring circumftances, fixed our Meroé at Gerri, or be-- | 
tween that town and Wed: Baal a Nagga, that is about lat.. 
16° 10’ north.; and Ptolemy, from an obfervation of the Sol-- 
ftice, fixes it at 16° 26, fo that the error here, if any, feems» 
to be of no confequence, as the direction of the city might: 
extend to the northward.. The:obfervations mentioned. by 
Pliny are not fo accurate, nor. do they merit to be put in. 
competition with thofe:of Prolemy, for yery obvious reafons; 
yet full, when ftridtly examined, they do not fail, inaccurate « 
as they are, to throw fome light upon this fubject. He fays. 
the fun is vertical: at Meroé twice a-year, once when he. 
enters the 18° of Taurus, and again when he is in the r4th: 
degree of the Lion::. 
Herz are three impoffibilities, which plainly fhew that: 
this error is not that of Pliny, but of-an ignorant tranfcri-. 
r; for ifthe zenith of Meroé.anfwered to the 18th degree : 
of Taurus, it is impoflible that the fame point fhould an--. | 
fwer to the 14th degree of the Lion; and if Syene was s5oco.; 
ftadia from the one, it is impoflible it could be no more- 
from the other which was fouth of. it, if they were all: 
three: 
