Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/164

 130 plint's nattjeal histoet. [Eook II. medicates tliem^ Among the prodigies which have occurred, there is one which happened when Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, was expelled from his kingdom ; that, for the space of one day, the water in the harbour became sweet. (101.) The moon, on the contrary, is said to be a feminine and delicate planet, and also nocturnal ; also that it resolves humours and draws them out, but does not carry them off. It is manifest that the carcases of wild beasts are rendered putrid by its beams, that, during sleep, it draws up the accumulated torpor into the head, that it melts ice, and relaxes all things by its moistening spirit-. Thus the changes of nature compensate each other, and are always adequate to their destined purpose ; some of them congealing the elements of the stars and others dissolving them. The moon is said to be fed by fresh, and the sun by salt water. CHAP. 105. (102.) — WHEKE THE SEA IS THE DEEPEST. Fabianus^ informs us that the greatest depth of the sea is 15 stadia-*. We learn from others, that in the Euxine, opposite to the nation of the Coraxi, at what is called the Depths of the Euxine^ about 300 stadia^ from the main land, the sea is immensely deep, no bottom having been found. ^ The commentators discuss at considerable length the relative merits of the three hypotheses here proposed, to accoimt for the saltness of the ocean ; all of which are equally unfounded. See Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 434, 435. Aristotle's opinion on this subject is contained in his Meteor. 2 It is not easy to ascertain the origin of the very general opinion re- specting the pecuhar physical action of the moon. The alleged facts are, for the most part, without foundation, and I am not aware of any cir- cumstance which could, originally, have made them a part of the popular creed of so many nations, ancient as well as modem. Perhaps some of the effects which have been ascribed to the specific action of the moon, may be explained by the lower temperature and greater dampness of the air, during the absence of the sun. 3 There appears to be some doubt respecting the history of the person liere referred to : according to the account of Hardouin, Fabianus was a naturahst, who enjoyed a high repution ; he Hved in the time of Tiberius : see Lemaire, i. 188. ^ This would be a depth of 3125 yards, not very far short of two miles ; see Adam's Eom. Antiq. p. 503. ^ " B«0ea Ponti ;" Aristotle refers to this as one of those parts where tlie sea is unfathomable ; Meteor, i. 13.
 * A distance of nearly nine and a half miles.