Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/208

 GALLIA TBANS. The Pyraie (pvp^im) or Pyrenaei Montes were the b<niiidiii7 between Gallia and Iberia, or Hispania, as the Romans called it Strabo supposed that they ran in a direction parallel to the Ithine (p. 128), which he makes the eastern boundary of Gallia. He must therefore have supposed that the Pyrenees ran from south to north, instead of nearly from east to west; and in another passage he dijttinctly affirms (p. 137} that they do run north. In a third pas- sa^ (p. 199} he supposes that the directions of the Rhine and the Pyrenees msy deviate from the pa- rallel direction as they severally approach the sea, so as to reduce the 5000 stadia — the greatest distance that l)e supposes between the Pyrenees and the Rhine — to tho smaller distance of 4300 or 4400 stadia between the mouth of the Rhine and the northern extremity of the Pyrenees. Strabo^ in fact, makes the range of the Pyrenees the east side of Spain {p, 137), and the ooutt on the Mediterranean the south side of Spain. He knew, however, that the narrowest part of Gallia was lietween Narbotme and the bay on the Atlantic, which he also calls the Gallicus Sinus, — the bay that is formed between the coasts of France and Spain at the bottom of the bay of Biscay. Posidonius (Strab. p. 188) made the length of this isthmus, as he calls it, less than 3000 stadia. Strabo more correctly says that the isthmus is less than 3000, but more than 2000, atsdia wide. The length of the Pyrenees in a direct line from Port Vendre to the mouth of the Bidatoa, the lower part of which little river is the boundary between France and Spain, is about 255 miles. The limit between Gallia and Hispania on the west coast, according to Ptolemy (ii. 6. § 10) was Ocasso, a promontory of the Pyrenees. We may certainly fix it between Lapurdum, in the Tarbelli (suppoeed to be Bay<mne)f and Oeaseo or Olarso (^Oyar^^ near Fv- enie Rahia) in Spain. The Bvlatoa is near to Fuente Rabia. The peases through the eastern and western Pyrenees were used long before the Romans were in this country. Hannibal crossed from Spain into France through the pass at the east end; and Gn. Pompeins went this way to oppose SertoriuB«in Spain. The Romans afterwards bad a road between Nor- hotme and Barcdona in Spain, by the pass where the Tropaea Pompeii were erected. Gn the west ride a road ran from Aquae Tarbellicae {Dax)^ on the AdcuTf to Pompelo (Pomp/ofia), in Spain. The boundary may have been at the station of Summus Pjrcnaeus, the summit level of the road, between J)ax and Pamplona. Another road led from Aquae Tartellicae, by Aspaluea [Asfaluca], and over another Summus Pyrenaeus, to Caesaraugusta (So- raffo§a) in Spain. In Caesar's time the passes were used fur commercial purposes, for he bought horses in Spain during his Gallic War; but they had doubtless been used many centuries before. The coast of Gallia on the Atlantic runs nearly due north, with a fiat sandy shore, to the great aestnary of the Garumna (Corowie), which Strabo (p. 190) aptly calls a lake-sea {Ki/iwo^dKaffffa). From the aestuary of the Garonne the direction of the coast turns a little to the west of north as far as the month of the Ligeris (Loire), From the month ef the Loire its general course is about WSW. as far as Uxantis Insula (OueMon/), which is opposite to the western termination of the great peninsula between the mouth of the Loire and the bay of Can- calle. The distance along the coast from the mouth of the Bidtuoa to the point of the matnhuid opposite to Omeaant k about 914 English miles. GALUA TRANS. 949 The west coast of this peninsula, the Brelagne of ante-revolutionary France, is broken by singular headlands and deep bajrs. In the latitude of Ouea^ tant the French coast runs due east to the bottom of the bap ofCancfUlej where another peninsula (Co> tantm) runs nearly due north int9 the EngUaik Channel and terminates in Cap de la Hogue. The greet bay that lies between the Cotantin and Bre- tagne contains the ishinds of Gaesarea (Jerseg Samia ((rtiem«ey), and Riduna (Aldemey), From Cap de la Hogue the French coast has a general east direction to the outlet of the Sequana (Seine); and from the outlet of the Seine its general conise is N£. to the mouth of the Samara (Somfiie), and then nearly due north to Itinm Promontorium (Cap Grit JVee), the nearest pdnt of the European con* tinent to Britannia. The ancient navigators had observed that the coast of Britain from the Jjonde End runs eastward nearly parallel to the French coast, forming a long channel (La Manche^ or the Sleeve, as the French aptly call it), wide at the western extremity, and narrowing to the eastern, where it terminates in the Straits ^ Dover or Pae de Calaitj between Dover and Cap Grit Nez. The length of this channel measurMl along the French coast is about 660 miles, which is much greater than the distance measured along the English coast of the channel, for the form of the French coast is much more irregular. The distance slong the coast from Cap Gris Nez to the mouth of the old Rhine near Leiden is about 170 miles. The coast of Gallia from the Itium to the mouth of the Rhine is flat : it belongs to the great plain of Northern Europe. Strabo supposed the motiths of the Rhine to be opposite to the North Foreland in Kent ; no very great mistake, for the whole tract from the mouth of the old Rhine at Leiden to the aestuary of the Scaldis (Schelde) might easily be taken as be- longing to the Rhine. Caesar was told that the Scaldis flowed into the Mosa, which receives the Vahalis (Waal) Arom the Rhine (B. G, vl. 33). This general parallelism of the N W. coast of France and the south coast of England, led Strabo into a strans^e mistake. He supposes these two coasts to be exactly of the same length, 4300 or 4400 stadia. He makes the Gallic coast extend from the months of the Rhine to the northern promontories of the Py- renees in Aquitania, and the English coast from Cantium (Kent) to the western extremi^ of Britan- nia, which he supposes to be opposite to Aquitania and the Pyrenees (p. 199). Consequently he supposed that the Seine, Loire, and Garonne flowed into the English Channel. He also says that the distance from the (mouths of the) riven of Gallia to Britain is 320 stadia; a monstrous mistake, but consistent with what he has said. Ptolemy's map of this coast of Gallia is much better than Strabo*6 delineation. Mela, who prc^biy wrote somewhat later than Strabo, and compiled a very scanty gec^raphy, had however a much more correct notion of the Atlantic coast of Gallia than Strabo. After describmg the north coast of Spain up to Geasso, he says: ** Then follows the other (Atkmtic) side of Gallia, the coast of which at first not projecting at all into the ocean, soon advancing almost as far into the sea as Hispania had receded from it, becomes opposite to the Canta- brian hind, and, winding round with a great cirenit, turns its shore to the west; then turning to the north, it again spreads out in a long and direct line to the banks of the Rhine": which is indeed a very ikir description. And Mek proves that he nnder- 3p3