Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/222

 208 STEABO. CAS. 138. exhalations rises from the humid element ; and the eye looking through these exhalations, sees images refracted into larger forms, as observed through tubes. The same thing happens when the setting sun or moon is seen through a dry and thin cloud, when those bodies likewise appear reddish. l Posidonius tells us that, having himself passed thirty days at Gades, 2 during which time he carefully observed the setting of the sun, he is convinced of the falsity of Artemidorus's account. This latter writer tells us, that at the time of its setting the sun appears a hundred times larger than its ordinary size, and that night immediately succeeds. If we attend to his account, we cannot believe that he himself remarked this phenomenon at the Sacred Promontory, 3 for he tells us that no one can approach during the night ; therefore they cannot approach at sunset, since night immediately supervenes thereupon. Nei- ther did he observe it from any other part of the coast washed by the ocean, for Gades is upon the ocean, and both Posido- nius and many others testify that there such is not the case. 6. The sea-coast next the Sacred Promontory forms on one side the commencement of the western coast of Spain as far as the outlet of the river Tagus ; and on the other forms the southern coast as far as the outlet of another river, named the Guadiana. 4 Both of these rivers descend from the eastern parts [of Spain] ; but the former, which is much larger than the other, pursues a straight course towards the west, while the Guadiana bends its course towards the south. 5 They enclose an extent of country peopled for the most part by Kelts and 1 We extract the following notice on this passage from Humboldt (Cos- mos, vol. iii. 54, Bonn's edition). " This passage has recently been pronounced corrupt, (Kramer i. 211,) and di vdXwv (through glass spheres) substituted for Si avu>v (Schneider, Eclog. Phys. ii. 273). The magnifying power of hollow glass spheres, filled with water, (Seneca i. 6,) was, indeed, as familiar to the ancients as the action of burning glasses or crystals, (Aristoph. Nub. v. 765,) and that of Nero's emerald (Plin. xxxvii. 5) ; but these spheres most assuredly could not have been employed as astronomical measuring instruments. (Compare Cosmos i. p. 619.) Solar altitudes taken through thin light clouds, or through volcanic vapours, exhibit no trace of the influence of refraction." 2 Cadiz. 3 Cape St. Vincent. * "Avag. 5 The Tagus, the Guadiana, and the Guadalquiver, pursue a course nearly parallel to each other, and all incline towards the south before dis- charging themselves into the sea ; the inclination of the Tagus is not equal to that of the other rivers.