DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

P. 462. Nore. “ The ignorance of Ptolemy.”

The inaccuracy of Ptolemy in placing all islands, except those of the Mediterra~ nean, is universally conspicuous. V. |

P. 483. ‘ A multitude of dogs and goats.”

Ptolemy and Pliny give the name of Canaria to one of these islands, from the multitude of dogs, and Ptolemy places them on the coast of Mauritania.

The number and position of the isles when again visited by navigators, whether Spanish, French, or Genoese, made them readily cognizable as the Canaries of the ancients. .

As the pike of Teneriffe is visible from the continent, these islands, when re-discovered, were found to be inhabited. Madeira, which is not visible, was found without inhabitants. V. |

P. 487. “ Arrian, or the nameless author who under the reign of Adrian has com- “ posed a description of the Red Sea.”

Ptolemy wrote in the reign of Adrian, but it is clear from internal evidence that the Peripl&s is prior to Ptolemy, and to Marinus, cited by Ptolemy. The latter. part of the reign of Claudius, or beginning of Nero’s, suits best with the date of the Periplûs. V. |

INQUIRY INTO THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF AFRICA, &c. 509

P. 489. “ The ships of war which he (N echus, or Neko) built commanded the ‘¢ Mediterranean and the Red Sea.” |

Psammitichus, the predecessor of Neko, was the first sovereign of Egypt who permitted the Greeks to trade in his ports, and why Neko should on a sudden wish to become a maritime power, it Is not very evident; for, according to Jablenski, the Egyptians held the sea and seafaring men in abomination, neither do Egyptian fleets nor ships appear in history till Egypt became subject to Persia. It is true that Herodotus assigns a fleet on the Mediterranean to Neko, but I do not recollect any expedition of the Egyptians in the Mediterranean, even in a later period, except the conquest of Cyprus by Amasis. And if Neko employed Phenicians on the Red Sea, it is a proof that the Egyptians were not navigators in his reign. V.

P. 490. “ The Phenicians reported that, in sailing round Africa, they had seen ' © the sun on their right hand.” aan

If the great triangle of Africa were cut off, as it appears in the map of Bertius, and this continent bounded by a vast line running north and south, this phenomenon would be verified for a great part of the voyage; but Africa ending in a point, as it

does strictly speaking, it would be visible only at the apex of the triangle. It seems. probable that in the contemplation of Heredotus, Africa was similar in form to the-

Africa of Bertius, and this is correspondent to the opinion of Juba, Manttus, Pomponius Mela, Macrobius, and Virgil.

See the Map of Bertius in Vincent’s Ancient Commerce, vol..u. p. 562. Second Edition. V..

P. 491, “ But a southern communication ‘between thie Todian and Atlantic. ocean: ‘“ might be affirmed or denied. » :

The two circumstances mentioned hy Herodatus afford ground for areument ;. but. ‘the voyages of Scylax, Eudoxus, Antipater, &c. tontain no particulars ; they announce.

. the-fact, but never consider how it was accomplished. In the voyage of Nearchus.

and the Periplûs we have the full detail; and by considering the-difficulties which. occurred, it 1s easy to determine what ancient navigators could or could not do. V.

Ib. ‘ My surprise and suspicion are excited hy tlie successful agriculture of the- “ strangers in unknown climates and new soils; by the seeds of the temperate ~ “ zone which yield their increase between the tropics.”

Gossellin contends that the seasons of the southern hemisphere-do not answer. to.

the harvests of: the northern, or the seed-time ; and Larcher, forced ‘to concede this,. supposes that on this pont Herodotus gives only. his own misconceived opinion, without reference to the Egyptian records. V. . P. 491.