P08ML<OSIl’4 ON 
tub Sin or thr 
Kartu. 
Tub Romans. 
*2*2 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
• 70.000 - uli \ hi h he considered half the circumference on the parallel of Rhodes, 
• included that a vessel undertaking a voyage from the west of Spain with an east 
wind on lr to arriv* at India after a navigation of 70,000 stadia. 1 We thus find him, 
iik Er.it. -tin lies, -peculating on the circumnavigation of the world many centuries 
' , CAumbus. He did not doubt that Africa could be circumnavigated, and in 
- u 1 1 j " rt of that view he cites the voyages of Eudoxus. 2 During his sojourn at Gades, 
rv. .1 i t only the daily llux and reflux of the tide, but its monthly variations, 
i.-h ]:? attributed to the influence of the diverse phases of the moon; he showed, 
l. that the high tides always coincided with the full moon, and the lowest with the 
last or intermediate quarters of the moon. 3 
1 -idonius was the first to record the appearance of a new volcanic island in the 
I : _!• up ; his description of the appearances which accompanied the formation of the 
si. ' Id - not differ from that given by modern observers of similar phenomena. The 
i >\ u ut . ’ the land caused by earthquakes and volcanic outbursts taught him the 
modi!' at ions which the surface of the globe might undergo under the influence of these 
: H. even went so far as to admit that the Atlantis of Plato might not be a pure 
;!. ti >n, and that an island, equal to a continent, might really sink into the depths of the 
...•• in by the dislocations to which the earth’s crust is subjected. 4 
A < ording to Posidonius, the sea about Sardinia was the deepest of known seas; it 
!.. n “ measured” down to “ somewhere about ” 1000 fathoms. It would have been 
i iig to kuow the methods employed by the ancients in these deep soundings, but 
th. author gives no information on the subject. 6 This may be considered the first 
of a d* ■up-sea sounding, and, for that reason, deserves to be noticed. Before 
w : met with another observation of this nature many centuries pass away; indeed, 
• till th' in of the celebrated Portuguese navigator, Magellan, do we find a renewal 
of attempts to sound the deep sea. 
When the Romans had extended their dominions to Egypt, they were able to acquire 
th.- g. ..graphical knowledge possessed by the school of Alexandria, but the genius of this 
• Ur: ucring people was not directed towards scientific researches. The science of 
. i] / was not advanced among them, as among the Greeks, by the speculations 
■ : [■hi:- •- >pli<-r-, l.y the observation of natural phenomena, or by commercial relations. 
I* i; natural to expert that the Romans, who had carried their arms throughout 
n- ir \ ill th-- world known to the ancients, should have left some important documents 
r.l ting to the physical aspects of nature in the regions over which they had 
•i. i-d t h< ir sway; few Latin writers have, however, made contributions to 
1 - r . : i. 3, ' Tin « en ornate of the circumference of the globe was accepted by the later Greek geographers, 
tad even by the astronomer Ptolemy, in toe to the more correct one of Eratosthenes. 
* Sue ii. 3, 4. 1 Strabo, iii. 6, 8. ^Strabo, ii. 3, 6. 
1 Strabo, 13,9; «ee Banbury, op. c ii., voL ii. pp. 93-100. 
