Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/129

 CHAP. i. 17. INTRODUCTION. Ho rid zone, and which crosses the Cinnamon Country. 1 We have proved that the regions not more than 5000 stadia north of Keltica, as fur as lerne, 2 are scarcely habitable, but their rea- soning leads to the conclusion that there is another circle fitted for the habitation of man, although 3800 stadia north of lerne. 3 And that Bactra is still farther north than the mouth of the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea, which is distant about 6000 stadia from the recess of the Caspian and the mountains of Armenia and Media, and which appears to be the most northerly point of the whole coast as far as India, with a sea navigable to India all the way, as Patrocles, who had the government of these regions, affirms. Now Bactriana stretches 1000 stadia farther north. Beyond this the Scythians occupy a much larger territory, bounded by the Northern Ocean : here they dwell, though to be sure theirs is a nomade life. But we ask how they could exist here at all, supposing even Bactra to be beyond the limits of the habitable globe. The distance from the Caucasus to the Northern Sea through Bactra would be 1 The Greek has Kiva/iw/to^opov 'ivdiKijg. We have omitted the lat- ter word altogether from the translation, as being a slip of the pen. Strabo certainly never supposed the Cinnamon Country to be any where in India. 2 Ireland. 3 Perhaps it may aid the reader in realizing these different reasonings if we give a summary of them in figures. Strabo supposes that Hipparchus, reckoning from the equator to the limits of the inhabited earth,. . 8,800 stadia should have fixed the southern extremity of India more to the north by ........ 4,000 and the northern extremity of India, according to the measures of Deimachus, still more to the north by. . 30,000 Total 42,800 Now, Strabo adds, following Hipparchus, the northern shores of Keltica and the mouth of the Dnieper, are distant from the equator ....... 34,000 lerne, in a climate almost uninhabitable, was, according to Strabo's own impression, situated to the north of Keltica. 5,000 39,000 Then, according to Hipparchus, the habitable latitudes would extend still farther than lerne by. . . 3,800 Total 42,800 The great fertility of Bactriana, according to Strabo, appeared to be in- consistent with a position so far towards the north. In this he was correct. i 2