SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 
11 
Caspian to be in communication with the external sea. The Nile takes its source in the 
same external ocean. It is not necessary to dwell on other cosmographical conceptions 
of the Ionian school ; the spherical form of the earth, which must be regarded as the 
fundamental principle of all scientific geography, was unknown to them. (See Plate I.) 
Pythagoras 1 and his followers, however, regarded the earth as a sphere, 2 not from a Pythagorea.v 
study of facts but rather from speculative considerations ; they gave the earth a spherical ScH00ri- 
shape, because they held that form to be the most perfect. It is asserted by some writers 
that Pythagoras taught to his chosen disciples the true doctrine that the sun occupies 
the centre of the solar system, and that the earth is only one of the planets revolving 
around it ; and it is further affirmed that this knowledge was acquired from the Egyptians 
and Chaldeans. 3 
In the fifth century b.c. there appeared one of the most remarkable writers of Fifth Century 
antiquity, Herodotus, 4 who abandoned speculative theories and gave his attention to the h’ei-odotus 
observation of facts. He may be considered the founder of the science of physical 
geography, Hecatseus of Miletus being, to some extent, his precursor ; for, in addition to 
the cosmographical ideas w T e have mentioned above, Hecatseus gives much information 
concerning the coast tows of the Western Mediterranean. Herodotus had relative!) 
little knowledge of the western regions and seas, while, on the other hand, he gives 
copious information about the east and north. He had learnt from the Greek merchants 
of the Pontus Euxinus that, contrary to the view of Hecatseus, the Caspian was entirely 
isolated from the ocean, and he knew r its form and extent. Herodotus gives to the Palus 
Mseotis 5 an extent nearly equal to the Euxinus, although the latter is at least six times 
greater. Commentators and geographers, founding upon this estimate of the Greek 
historian, have concluded that great physical changes have taken place in the region of 
the Sea of Azov in recent times. Scylax, a century after Herodotus, estimated Lake 
Maeotis at one-half of that of the Euxinus. 6 Down even to the time of Ptolemy the 
ancients gave too great dimensions to this little sea. (See Plate II.) 
It is not without interest to note that the estimates of the Pontus Euxinus are made 
in Herodotus by means of tire dpyvid , 7 corresponding to the fathom ( brcisse , fciden), Fathoms l?ed 
which is always employed by sailors as a measure of depth. “ In a long day,” he says, -j 
“a ship usually accomplishes about 70,000 fathoms, and about 60,000 in the night. 
This employment of the word opymd indicates distinctly that this was not only a bathy- 
metrical measure, but also a nautical measure of length, the place of which has been 
taken by the modern knot of navigation. Herodotus himself translates fathoms into 
stadia. 8 
The practical spirit of Herodotus concerned itself only with facts, and he dealt 
1 Flourished in the sixth century b.c. - Whewell, Hist, of Ind. Sci., ed. 3, vol. i. p. 115, London, 1S57. 
3 Harkness, On the Magnitude of the Solar System, Nature, voi. I. p. 532. 4 484 to 408 B.c. 
5 Sea of Azov. 6 Scylax, Periplus, 69. 7 The length of the outstretched arms. 
8 100 op yviai, or fathoms, 600 feet = a cable’s length = 1 stadium (see Bunbury, op. cit., vol. i. pp. 176 and 209). 
