Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/141

 Chap. 75.] SHADOWS. 107 CHA.P. 75. (73.) — WHEK AND WHEEE THERE ARE NO SHADOWS. It is likewise said, that in the town of Syeue, which is 5000 stadia south of Alexandria^ there is no shadow at noon, on the day of the solstice ; and that a well, which was sunk for the purpose of the experiment, is illuminated by the sun in every part. Hence it appears that the sun, in this place, is vertical, and Onesicritus informs us that this is the case, about the same time, in India, at the river Hypasis'. It is well known, that at Berenice, a city of the Troglodytae, and 4820 stadia beyond that city, in the same country, at the town of Ptolemais, which was built on the Eed Sea, when the elephant was first hunted, this same thing takes place for fortj^-five days before the solstice and for an equal length of time after it, and that during these ninety days the shadows are turned towards the south^. Again, at Meroe, an island in the Nile and the metropolis of the ^Ethiopians, which is 5000 stadia** from Syene, there are no shadows at two periods of the year, ^dz. when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus and in the lltli of Leo^ The Oretes, a people of India, have a mountain named Maleus^ near which the shadows in sum- 6th book, ch. 39, makes the shadow at Ancona -^-^ greater than the gnomon, while, in Venctia, which is moi*e northerly, he says, as in the present chapter, that the shadow and the gnomon are equal in length. See the remarks of M. Alexandre in Lemau'c, uf supra. give the same distance, which is probably neai'ly correct. 8yene is, however, a Httle to the north of the tropic. 2 This remark is not correct, as no part of tins river is between the tropics. For an account of Onesicritus see Lemaire, i. 203, 204. ^ " In meridiem mnbras jaci." M. Ajasson translates this passage, " les ombres tombent pendant quatre-vingl-dix jours sur Ic point central du meridien." ii. 165. But I conceive that Holland's version is more cor- rect, "for 90 days' space aU the shadows are cast into the south." i. 36. The remarks of M. Alexandre are to the same efiect ; " ut bis solem in zenitho haberet (Ptolemais), Maii mensis et Augusti initio ; interea vero, solem e septemtrione haberet." Lemaire, i. 393. respectively. ' There is considerable uncertainty respecting the identity of this moun- tain J our author refers to it in a subsequent part of his work, where it is
 * This would be about 625 miles. Strabo, ii. 114, and Lucan, ii. 587,
 * About 625 miles.
 * These days correspond to the 8th of May and the 4th of August