Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/273

 B. in. c. v. 8. SPAIN. 259 to the groundless belief of the inhabitants as to its being affected in an opposite manner [to the tides of the ocean]. However it is not only related by him that it is a commonly believed fact, but we have received it from tradition as much referred to amongst paradoxes. 1 We have likewise heard that there are wells both within the city and also in the gar- dens without, but that on account of the inferiority of this water, tanks are generally constructed throughout the city for the supply of water : whether likewise any of these reservoirs give any signs of being affected in an opposite manner to the tides, we know not. If such be the case, the causes thereof should be received as amongst phenomena hard to be ex- plained. It is likely that Poly bi us may have assigned the proper reason ; but it is also likely that certain of the chan- nels of the springs being damped outside become relaxed, and so let the water run out into the surrounding land, instead of forcing it along its ancient passage to the spring ; and there will of course be moisture when the tide overflows. 2 But if, as Athenodorus asserts, the ebb and flow resemble the in- spiration and expiration of the breath, it is possible that some of the currents of water which naturally have an efflux on to the surface of the earth, through various channels, the mouths of which we denominate springs and fountains, are by other channels drawn towards the depths of the sea, and raise it, so as to produce a flood-tide ; when the expiration is sufficient, they leave off the course in which they are then flowing, and again revert to their former direction, when that again takes a change. 3 8. I cannot tell how it is that Posidonius, who describes the Phoenicians as sagacious in other things, should here attribute 1 The text is tv role 7rapet6oic, which Gosselin renders, " Les ouv- rages qui traitent des choses merveilleuses." can have ever been seriously made use of. 3 This method of explaining the ebb and flow of the sea, by comparing it to the respiration of animals, is not so extraordinary, when we remem- ber that it was the opinion of many philosophers that the universe was itself an animal. Pomponius Mela, (De Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 1,) speaking of the tides, says, " Neque adhuc satis cognitum est, anhelitune suo id mundus efficiat, retractamque cum spiritu regerat undam tmdique, si, ut doctioribus placet, unum (lege universum) animal est ; an sint depress! aliqui specus, quo reciprocata maria residant, atque itnde se rursus exu- berantia attollant : an luna causas tantis meatibus praebeat." s 2
 * Strabo's argument is here so weak, that one can hardly believe it