CHAPTER X.
PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.
Physical Features of Greece—Impression produced by them on Aristotle—
Physical Geographers—Agatharchides—His Account of the Aethiopian
Gold-mines—Similar Description in the Book of Job—Eudoxus of Cyzicus
—Artemidorus—Posidonius—His Travels—His Varied Interests—Error
about the Circumference of the Earth—Tides—Observations of Aristotle,
of Pytheas, and of Posidonius—Winds—Aristotle's Scheme—Timosthenes'
Scheme—Popular Scheme—* Temple of the Winds' at Athens—Period-
ical Winds—Rivers—Their Sources, Underground Courses, Power of
Erosion, Deposit of Alluvium, Tidal Waves—Earthquakes and Volcanic
Action—Views of Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Aristotle—Earthquakes
relieved by Volcanoes—Observations of Posidonius—Flora—Theophras-
tus' History of Plants—The Descriptio Montis Pelii—Fauna—Anthropo-
logical Notices—Agatharchides on the Ichthyophagi and Aethiopians—
Posidonius on the Iberians and Gauls—Historical Geography as found in
Aristotle—His Restricted Views—Ephorus the Forerunner of Polybius—
Geographical Section of his History—His Advanced Criticisms—Polybius
circ. 210-128 B.C.—How affected by the Circumstances of his Age—His
Travels in Western Europe—His Opinion of the Importance of Travel-
Interest in Physical Geography—His Application of Geography to History
—Descriptions of Countries—Cisalpine Gaul—Media—Descriptions of
Cities—Sinope—Agrigentum—New Carthage—General Remarks.
IN the first chapter of the present work it has been observed
. that Greece was in many ways a suggestive country
Features of to its inhabitants on the subject of physical geo-
Greece* graphy. Its remarkable isthmuses, such as that of
Corinth, which was familiar to every Greek, and those of the
peninsulas of Athos and Pallene in Chalcidice, and the still more
peculiar belt of sand by which the island of Leucadia was joined
to the neighbouring continent; the narrow inlets, which penetrated
at many points into the land, and the strange currents which were
produced within them by the influx and efflux of the sea; the
numerous islands, which were either grouped in clusters or
scattered over the surface of the water:—these, and many other
features by which its area was diversified, furnished as it were an