152 PLINY's ^TATUIIAL HISTOEX. [Book III. 
in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its 
entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and 
Europe on the left ; Asia lies between them^ ; the boundaries 
being the rivers Tanais'^ and Nile. The Straits of the ocean, 
of which I have just spoken, extend fifteen miles in length and 
five^ in breadth, measured from the village of Mellaria^ in 
Spain to the Album Promontorium^ or White Promontory in 
Africa, as we learn from Turranius Grracilis, who was born in 
that vicinity. Titus Livius and Cornelius Nepos however 
have stated the breadth, where it is least, to be seven miles, 
and where greatest, ten ; from so small a mouth as this does ' 
so immense an expanse of water open upon us ! Nor is our 
astonishment diminished by the fact of its being of great 
depth ; for, instead of that, there are numerous breakers and 
shoals, white with foam, to strike the mariner with alarm. 
Prom this circumstance it is, that many have called this spot 
the threshold of The Inland Sea. 
At the narrowest part of the Straits, there are mountains 
placed to form barriers to the entrance on either side, 
Abyla*^ in Africa, and Calpe'' in Europe, the boundaries 
formerly of the labours of Hercules^. Hence it is that the 
inhabitants have called them the Columns of that god ; they 
^ This is said more especially in reference to the western parts of Asia, 
the only portion which was perfectly known to the ancients. His mean- 
ing is, that Asia as a portion of the globe does not he so far north as 
Europe, nor so far south as Africa. 
2 Now the Don. It was usually looked upon as the boundary between 
Europe and Asia. Pliny's meaning seems to be, that the Tanais divides 
Asia from Europe, and the Nile, Asia from Africa, the more especially 
as the part to the west of the Nile was sometimes considered as belonging 
to Asia. It has been however suggested that he intends to assign these 
rivers as the extreme eastern boundaries of the internal or Mediterranean 
sea. 
3 At no spot are the Straits less than ten miles in width ; although 
D' Anville makes the width to be Httle less than five miles. This passage 
of our author is probably in a corrupt state. 
^ This probably stood near the site of the town of Tarifa of the pre- 
sent day. 
^ Probably the point called ' Punta del Sainar ' at the present day. 
6 Now called Ximiera, Jebel-el-Mina, or Monte del Hacho. 
7 The Eock of Gibraltar. 
^ The fable was that they originally formed one mountain, which was 
torn asunder by Hercides, or as Pliny says, *' dug through." 
