88 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



they again embarked, meeting with constant adventures and 

 difficulties upon their way. One day they would pass through 

 huge menacing rocks, so near that they touched them with their 

 oars on either side. On another they would be compelled, on 

 landing for water, to ascend for miles into the interior before 

 finding fresh-water sources. A storm caused two galleys and a 

 vessel to founder, the crews of which, however, succeeded in 

 swimming to shore. Nearchus caused his whole army to land 

 at this point, for they needed repose, and his shattered fleet 

 required repairs. He met with Leonatus, whom Alexander had 

 detached from the main body of the army to follow the coasts 

 and keep up a communication with Nearchus. Wheat was also 

 sent to this spot by Alexander for the fleet, and each vessel 

 took a supply sufficient for ten days. Nearchus exchanged such 

 sailors and soldiers as had proved inefficient, for fresh men 

 selected from the division of Leonatus. 



At this point the narrative becomes strongly tinged with the 

 usual exaggerations of the early navigators. Nearchus asserts 

 that he observed strange phenomena in the heavens. When the 

 sun was in the meridian, he says, no shadow was projected, and 

 the stars which they were accustomed to see above them were 

 now crouching close to the horizon ; others, that had never before 

 disappeared from the sky, now rose and set at intervals. The 

 assertion in regard to shadows at noon is- evidently a fabri- 

 cation. Enough was known of astronomy and the motions of 

 the heavenly bodies, in the time of Nearchus, to convince the 

 learned that there must be a point where no shadow would 

 be cast by a body directly beneath the sun at the summer sol- 

 stice ; and Nearchus, with a vanity quite usual in the conquerors 

 and adventurers of those times, chose to assert, and he perhaps 

 believed, that he had seen this singular phenomenon. Two 

 circumstances will show the inaccuracy of his statement. The 

 alleged appearance took place in the middle of the month of 

 November, and twenty-five degrees north of the equator. Even 



