Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/161

 Chap. 100.] AlfOMALOUS TIDES. 127 On Avhich account neither lakes nor rivers are moved in the same manner. Pytheas^ of Massilia informs us, that in Britain the tide rises 80 cubits'. Inland seas are enclosed as in a harbour, but, in some parts of them, there is a more free space which obeys the influence^. Among many other examples, the force of the tide will carry us in three days from Italy to Utica, when the sea is tranquil and there is no impulse from the sails^. But these motions are more felt about the shores than in the deep parts of the seas, as in the body the extremities of the veins feel the pulse, which is the vital spirit^ more than the other parts ^. And in most estu- aries, on account of the unequal rising of the stars in each tract, the tides diifer from each other, but this respects the period, not the nature of them ; as is the case in the Syrtes. CHAP. 100. WHEEE THE TIDES EISE AIS^D EALL IX AJ!^ tTNTJSUAL MANNER. There are. However, some tides which are of a peculiar nature, as in the Tauromenian Euripus'^, where the ebb and flow is more frequent than in other places, and in Euboea, where it takes place seven times during the day and the night. The tides intermit three times during each month, being the 7th, 8th and 9th day of the moon'. At Gades, which is very near the temple of Hercules, there is a spring ^ Our author has already referred to Pytheas, in the 77th chapter of this book. 2 It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the space here mentioned, which is nearly 120 feet, is far greater than the actual fact. ^ "Ditioni paret;" "Lunee sohsque efficientise, quae ciet sestum." Ilardouin in Lemaire, i. 430. '^ The effect here described covdd not have depended upon the tides, but upon some current, either affecting the whole of the Mediterranean, or certain parts of it. See the remarks of Ilardouin in Lemaire. 5 Pliny natuj'aUy adopted the erroneous opinions respecting the state of the blood-vessels, and the cause of the pulse, which were universally maintained by the ancients. ^ The name of Em'ipus is generally applied to the strait between Boeotia and Euboea, but our author here extends it to that between Italy and Sicily. A peculiarity in the tide of this strait is referred to by Cicero, De Nat. JJeor. iii. 24. 7 " JEstus idem triduo in mense consistit." " Consistentia, sivemedio- critas aquarum non solum septima die sentitur, sed et octava, ac noua durat," as Hardouin explains this passage, Lemaire, i. 431.