SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 
19 
fleet under Ptolemy Philadelphia. As that work is totally lost, it is impossible to judge 
of the real extent of the obligations of Eratosthenes to his predecessor ; but it is evident 
that such a practical guide to the mariner must have contributed materially to the more 
definite geographical knowledge of seas and coasts. This work of Timosthenes may be Precuj:-;oe oi the 
regarded as the precursor of the modern Sailing Directions issued by the British and 
other Hydrographic Offices. Timosthenes also introduced for the first time the arrange- 
ment of countries according to the winds that blew from different quarters with reference 
to Alexandria, that is to say, according to different points of the compass . 1 
Some of the conceptions of Strato of Lampsacus , 2 which Eratosthenes adopted, Steato of Lamp- 
may here be summarised in a few words. He held that the Euxinus and Mediterranean bAr 
were formerly completely closed seas that stood at a much higher level and that they 
burst their barriers and gave rise to the Straits of the Bosphorus, the Hellespont, and 
Gibraltar. As proof of this theory, he cited the presence of marine shells far in the 
interior of Libya, as well as the deposits of salt in the same region. It is very improb- 
able, to say the least, that the sudden disruption adduced by Strato and Eratosthenes 
suffices to account for these straits, although the speculation has been revived in modern 
times . 3 The observations with reference to marine shells have a great significance from a 
geological standpoint ; they constitute one important fact in the science of the earth, 
but the presence of these shells in the far interior of lands cannot be explained in this 
manner. It is not without interest to recall that Strato, to support his hypotheses, 
records the existence in the Strait of Gibraltar of a submarine bank uniting Europe 
and Africa ; it was this tongue of land which formerly joined the two continents. The 
presence of such a bank has been proved, but at too great a depth to make it at all 
probable that it was known by soundings to the ancients. The philosopher of Lampsacus 
and Eratosthenes knew, however, that certain parts of the Mediterranean — for instance, 
the sea about Sicily and Sardinia — were deeper than the rest of the basin. 
Hipparchus , 4 the greatest astronomer of antiquity, was posterior to Eratosthenes by Second Centcrt 
about half a century, and, although he wrote more as an astronomer than as a geographer, [j. >r , ,. H . g 
his name is associated with the important reform of introducing projections in the 
tracing of charts and maps. He clearly conceived the idea, afterwards adopted by ^Ixp Projection - 
Ptolemy, of a map of the habitable world, on which every important point should be laid IXTlODl 
down according to latitude and longitude, determined by astronomical observations, 
although the construction of such a chart was, at the time, wholly impossible in practice. 
He drew circles of the sphere on the maps, representing the meridians by convergent 
curves. This new method had a great influence upon the study of the distribution of land 
1 Strabo, ix. 3 ; Bunbury, op. cit., vol. i. p. 589. 2 Flourished in the third century B.c 
3 See Admiral Smyth, op. cit., pp. 114—122 ; M. Dureau de la Malle, Geographic Physique de la Mer Noire, 
de l’lnterieur de 1’Afrique, et de la Mediterranee, Paris, 1807 ; N. Andrussow, Sur 1’Etat du Bassin de la Mer Noiia 
pendant l’Epoque pliocene, St. Petersburg, 1892. 
4 Flourished from about 162 to 125 b.c. ; said to have been born 190 b.c. 
