Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/112

 98 STEABO. BOOK i. winds, and the equator of the southern ; these winds have no other limit. 23. Eratosthenes next finds fault with the writers who fill their narrative with stories evidently feigned and impossible ; some as mere fable, but others as history, which did not de- serve mention. In the discussion of a subject like his, he should not have wasted his time about such trifles. Such is the way in which this writer completes the First Book of his Memoirs. CHAPTER IV. 1. IN his Second Book Eratosthenes endeavours to correct some errors in geography, and offers his own views on the subject, any mistakes in which we shall endeavour in our turn to set right. He is correct in saying that the inductions of mathematics and natural philosophy should be employed, and t thatif^the earth is spheroidal like_the u ni verse, it is inhabited ^* mall j>arts ; together with some other things of this nature. Later writers do not agree with him as to the size of the earth, 1 nor admit his measurement. However Hipparchus, when noting the cj]^sjial^rjD^aj^ances for each particular lo- / cality, adoptsjiis admeasurements, saying thaTtHose~fa^eri for tTip: rnfirufinn of Mprn^ 2 Alftyapdria. and the Dnieper, dif- fer but very slightly from the truth. JEratosthenes then en- ters into a long discussion concerning the figure of the globe, proving that the form of the earth together with the water is / -^spheroidal, as jls^_jhej^eaf!ns. ^This however we imagine ^*~ was foreign to his purpose, and should have been disposed of in the compass of a few words. 2. After this he proceeds to determine the breadth of the habitable earth : he tells us, that measuring from the meridian of Meroe 3 to Alexandria, there are 10,000 stadia. 1 According to Gosselin, this does not allude to the size of the whole earth, but merely that part of it which, according to the theory of the ancients, was alone, habitable. - Most probably Gherri in Sennaar. 3 Eratosthenes supposed that Meroe, Alexandria, the Hellespont, and