XVI.] RETROSPECT AND SUMMARY. 369 marked advance in geographical knowledge was the latter half of the fourth century before our era. It was at that time that Alexander carried his victorious arms as far eastward as Bactria and India, and explored the shores of the Indian Ocean; while in the opposite direction Pytheas was investigating the western coasts of Europe and the wonders of the northern sea. The task of enlarging the field of knowledge now passed into the hands of the Romans, and we have seen how the campaigns of Lucullus and Pompey in Armenia and Iberia, the progressive subjugation of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, and finally the expeditions that were undertaken against Germany and other countries to the northward of the Alps, revealed to view large areas, about which before that time only vague rumours had prevailed. The facts that were thus brought to light were diligently harvested by learned men amongst the Greeks. The Augustan age formed the culmi nating point of these discoveries, and it was during that period that the sum of the information which had thus been acquired was once for all brought together, and diligently sifted and arranged, in the comprehensive work of Strabo and of Scientific Geography. We have also traced side by side with the growth of this part of the subject the gradual development of scientific enquiry about the earth and its component elements. In the domain of physical geography it has been seen how the early observation of earthquake movements and volcanic phenomena by the Greeks led up to the speculations of Aristotle on the causes which produced them, and afterwards to the examination and comparison of them by travellers like Posidonius; and how the tides of the ocean were made known to the dwellers about the Mediterranean, and the causes of their recurrence were explained, by Pytheas and other voyagers. In mathematical geography the process of development has been even more apparent. There we have noticed the early introduction of the gnomon as an instrument of measurement, and the primitive attempts at mapmaking and the division of the world into continents. At the same time the Homeric conception of the earth as a circular plane, which was still maintained by the Ionian school of philosophers, and was not wholly exploded in Herodotus' time, gave way before the belief in its sphericity, the arguments for which were formally stated by Aristotle. Further advances were made at a later period by means of the measurement of the circumference of the earth, and the computation of the size of the habitable world, by Eratosthenes; and the commencement of a system of parallels and meridians was made by that man of science and Hipparchus. It was reserved for Ptolemy after the lapse of several centuries to complete this, and at the same time the new and scientific system of projection which he invented laid the foundation on which a great part of modern cartography is based. INDEX. Acampsis, river, 114 Actae of Herodotus, 83; compared Adramyttium, the same name as Ha- Adulis, port of Auxuma, 274 Aeneas Tacticus, on signalling sta- Aeschylus, on the boundary between Aethale (Elba), 73. into, 224; gold-mines of, 186; 26; mentioned in the Iliad, 26; Aetna, the poem of, 321 Agatharchides, his work on the Ery- Agricola, his campaigns in Britain, Agrippa, his wall-map, 236; the ori- ginal source of the Itineraries, 306; Alans, first mentioned by Dionysius Albani, customs of the, 222 Alexander the Great, effects of his Alexandria, its importance to geo- Alexandria ad Caucasum, 133, 137 Alpheius, river, its disappearance, 10 Alps, passes over the, 210; Roman Altai Chain, first mentioned by Pto- lemy, 351 Amanus, Mt, 126, 257; crossed by Amber trade, in Homer, 31; route Amu Daria, river, 134 Anaxagoras, on the inundation of the Nile, 63; on earthquakes, 198 of the earth, 60; introduced the Antonine Itinerary, the, 306 Apes, mode of catching in India, 201 Arabia, carefully described by Era- Arabia Eudaemon, 276 Arabian Geographers, acquainted with Aral, Sea of, unknown to the ancients, Arelate, 300 Argaeus, Mt, ascents of, 247, 321; Ariana, description of, 130 Aristotle, his illustrations frequently Arrian, his history of Alexander's Arsanias, river, 219, 270 Asia, boundaries of, 68, 69; meaning Aspects of nature revealed by Alex- Astarte, represented by the Greek Atlas, supporting the heavens, 21; Augila, Oasis of, 96 Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), Augustan age, the culminating point Avienus, on the Oestrymnides, 36, Bab el-Mandeb, Straits of, 274 Bactria, invaded by Alexander, 134 Banyan tree, described by Onesicri- Barygaza (Baroche), 277, 281 Belerion, prom., 156 Bent, Mr, on the Hadramaut, 203; Berenice, commercial station at, 146; Berger, Dr H., on the Periplus of Bessus, satrap of Bactria, 131; cap- Bingheul-dagh, 114 373 Bore of the Indus, 139; of the Ner- Boundaries of the three continents, Bradley, Mr H., on Ptolemy's Geo- Brenner Pass, 304 Britain, its tin trade, 36; visited and Brittany, visited by Pytheas, 156; its Bunbury, Sir E. H., on the wander- Cabaeon, prom., 156 Cabeiri, worship of in Samothrace, Caesar, his conquest of Gaul, 228; 'Camarae vessels on the Euxine, Cambay, Gulf of, 277 Camulodunum, 287 Canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, Canaries, islands, 226, 342 Cantin, Cape, 105 |