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Often appears with: geography and the description of places · weather, storms, and the seasons · species, variation, and descent · the earth and its formation · fossils and the record of past life · fate, destiny, and necessity · plants and cultivation · experiment, observation, and evidence · custom and the manners of a people · reason and the intellect · famine, scarcity, and plenty · animals and their habits
Usually: argument (64) · detachment (55) · curiosity (44) · skepticism (18) · wonder (17) · description (13) · commentary or gloss (12) · narrative (10) · confronting death (5) · sudden reversal of fortune (4)
“It is self-evident that a person following up the course of a stream, will always ascend at a greater or less inclination: Mr. Gill, therefore, was much astonished, when walking up the bed of this ancient river, to find himself suddenly going down hill.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“The climate of the southern part of America appears particularly favourable to the production of peat.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“The Indians ended all their complaints by saying, "And it is only because we are poor Indians, and know nothing; but it was not so when we had a King.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“No one fact in the geology of South America, interested me more than these terraces of rudely-stratified shingle.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“It was like thinking on time, where the minute that now glides past is irrevocable.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · vivid
“So was it with these stones; the ocean is their eternity, and each note of that wild music told of one more step towards their destiny.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“You find, Sir, you have fears as well as hopes.”--So well did he see the whole, when another saw but the half of a subject.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · observation
“Nay, sure, Sir, it is better to LIVE rich than to DIE rich.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · precept
“The Lord God took man and placed in the paradise of pleasure, to dress and keep it.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) · precept
“The heteroscii are those amongst whom the shadow always falls to the north, as with us; or to the south, as amongst those who inhabit the other temperate zone.” Strabo, The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3) · observation
“How then is it the western rather than the southern boundary?” Strabo, The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3) · wit
“No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience · insight
Darwin argues that complex relations among organisms create shifting outcomes, illustrating with Staffordshire heath planted with Scotch fir, where birds, plants, and insect communities change after enclosure.
some cause, possibly in part through facility of diffusion amongst the crowded animals, been disproportionably favoured: and here comes in a sort of struggle between the parasite and its prey. On the other hand, in many cases, a large stock of individuals of the same species, relatively to the numbers of its enemies, is absolutely necessary for its preservation. Thus we can easily raise plenty of corn and rape-seed,…
Darwin argues that extreme climate change is not required: tiny structural or behavioral shifts can tip balanced struggles, and since nature selects internally and continually, it can produce better adaptation than human selection.
any of the species, by better adapting them to their altered conditions, would tend to be preserved; and natural selection would thus have free scope for the work of improvement. We have reason to believe, as stated in the first chapter, that a change in the conditions of life, by specially acting on the reproductive system, causes or increases variability; and in the foregoing case the conditions of life are suppos…
Darwin continues arguing that even where close species coexist, transitional forms are rarely found because intermediate varieties are often eliminated, and also because land continuity and barriers have changed over time.
will be blanks in our geological history. The crust of the earth is a vast museum; but the natural collections have been made only at intervals of time immensely remote. But it may be urged that when several closely-allied species inhabit the same territory we surely ought to find at the present time many transitional forms. Let us take a simple case: in travelling from north to south over a continent, we generally …
He links differences among domesticated breeds across countries to climate, elevation, exercise, womb development, breathing at high altitude, and natural selection acting on constitution and correlated traits like color and fly susceptibility.
from a broken egg, we may infer that this structure has arisen from the laws of growth, and has been taken advantage of in the parturition of the higher animals. We are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations; and we are immediately made conscious of this by reflecting on the differences in the breeds of our domesticated animals in different countries,—more especially in the les…
He suggests icebergs can transport seeds among the arctic and antarctic regions and proposes that ice-borne seeds may have helped stock the Azores during the Glacial epoch, using Lyell’s report of erratic boulders there.
the Mediterranean; and can we doubt that the earth adhering to their feet would sometimes include a few minute seeds? But I shall presently have to recur to this subject. As icebergs are known to be sometimes loaded with earth and stones, and have even carried brushwood, bones, and the nest of a land-bird, I can hardly doubt that they must occasionally have transported seeds from one part to another of the arctic an…
Assuming the world was simultaneously cooler in broad longitudinal belts, Darwin claims this helps explain distributions of related species, citing European genera appearing on distant southern mountains and islands like Tierra del Fuego, New Zealand, and Java.
whole world was at this period simultaneously cooler. But it would suffice for my purpose, if the temperature was at the same time lower along certain broad belts of longitude. On this view of the whole world, or at least of broad longitudinal belts, having been simultaneously colder from pole to pole, much light can be thrown on the present distribution of identical and allied species. In America, Dr. Hooker has sh…
It introduces the historical importance of German tribes for Rome’s decline, praises Tacitus as a philosopher-historian, and promises to describe climate, manners, and institutions that made the Germans formidable.
The State Of Germany Till The Invasion Of The Barbarians In The Time Of The Emperor Decius. The government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice, from their connection with the decline and fall of the Roman empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes, 1001 which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered o…
It defines the extent and regional boundaries of ancient Germany as lying between the Rhine and Danube, describes Carpathians on the south, and outlines the Baltic and northern islands as known only vaguely to ancients.
unum omnes Scytharum nomen his auctoribus subierunt, sed etiam ab illa regionis adpellatione in eandem nationem sunt conflatæ. Sic Cimmeriorum res cum Scythicis, Scytharum cum Sarmaticis, Russicis, Hunnicis, Tataricis commiscentur.—G.] 1002 (return) [ The Germania of Tacitus has been a fruitful source of hypothesis to the ingenuity of modern writers, who have endeavored to account for the form of the wor…
Gibbon sets out the location and qualities of Diocletian’s retirement at Salona in Dalmatia, noting distances to Aquileia and Sirmium, nearby palace construction, and descriptions of dry, fertile soil and views.
memory has been loaded with every crime and misfortune. It has been affirmed that he died raving mad, that he was condemned as a criminal by the Roman senate, &c.] Before we dismiss the consideration of the life and character of Diocletian, we may, for a moment, direct our view to the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal city of his native province of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman mi…
Linking geography gaps, Gibbon traces Hunnic pressure from the Volga toward the Vistula, then describes a later large migration under Rhodogast/Radagaisus toward Italy and Rome.
64 (return) [ See M. de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 179-189, tom ii p. 295, 334-338.] The chain of events is interrupted, or rather is concealed, as it passes from the Volga to the Vistula, through the dark interval which separates the extreme limits of the Chinese, and of the Roman, geography. Yet the temper of the Barbarians, and the experience of successive emigrations, sufficientl…
Darwin analyzes why Banda Oriental lacks trees, noting the few exceptions near streams and planted Spaniards’ trees, and then develops a broader climate-and-wind explanation using examples from South America and the Falkland Islands.
We see nearly the whole of Australia covered by lofty trees, yet that country possesses a far more arid climate. Hence we must look to some other and unknown cause. Confining our view to South America, we should certainly be tempted to believe that trees flourished only under a very humid climate; for the limit of the forest-land follows, in a most remarkable manner, that of the damp winds. In the southern part of …
After meeting Rosas, Darwin departs for Bahia Blanca, describes the Indian toldos (hide-covered round shelters) along the route, the fertile alluvial valley versus drier thicketless plains, and the geological shift toward the Pampas deposits north of the Colorado.
so I killed him." At the end of a week the murderer was at liberty. This doubtless was the act of the general's party, and not of the general himself. In conversation he is enthusiastic, sensible, and very grave. His gravity is carried to a high pitch: I heard one of his mad buffoons (for he keeps two, like the barons of old) relate the following anecdote. "I wanted very much to hear a certain piece of music, so I…
Darwin explains how an equable, humid, windy maritime climate extends northward along South America, affecting fruiting and enabling luxuriant forests and tree-like ferns across latitudes.
Latitude Temp. Temp. and Winter --------------------------------------------------------------- Tierra del Fuego 53 38' S. 50 33.08 41.54 Falkland Islands 51 38' S. 51 -- -- Dublin 53 21' N. 59.54 39.2 49.37 Hence we see that the central part of Tierra del Fuego is colder in winter, and no less than 9.5 degs. less hot in summer, than Dublin. According to von Buch, the mean temperature of July (not the hottest month …
Darwin relates that in the mountains of Tierra del Fuego leaf colour changes in April (their October) only on lower slopes, and argues this delay is due to the same vegetation law as in England’s differing autumns, while Fuegians’ trees never fully shed leaves.
and seeing another range through the light blue haze of a fine day! The one for a time may be very sublime; the other is all gaiety and happy life. August 14th.--I set out on a riding excursion, for the purpose of geologizing the basal parts of the Andes, which alone at this time of the year are not shut up by the winter snow. Our first day's ride was northward along the sea-coast. After dark we reached the Hacien…
Darwin explains that his climate conclusions for Tierra del Fuego come from Capt. King and Beagle observations, and that for the Falkland Islands he uses the mean temperature of December–February derived from careful hourly readings.
been introduced in some of the simple machinery; but even to the present day, water is removed from some mines by men carrying it up the shaft in leathern bags! The labouring men work very hard. They have little time allowed for their meals, and during summer and winter they begin when it is light, and leave off at dark. They are paid one pound sterling a month, and their food is given them: this for breakfast con…
From January 1 onward Darwin describes abundant seals and sea life near granite mountains, anchors near Low’s Harbour in the Chonos Archipelago for about a week, and observes wild potatoes and plant distribution.
the end of it, but hope then to be in the Pacific Ocean, where a blue sky tells one there is a heaven,--a something beyond the clouds above our heads. The north-west winds prevailing for the next four days, we only managed to cross a great bay, and then anchored in another secure harbour. I accompanied the Captain in a boat to the head of a deep creek. On the way the number of seals which we saw was quite astonish…
Darwin compares peat formation across Chiloé, the Chonos Archipelago, and Tierra del Fuego, attributing peat growth largely to Astelia and describing how climate limits peat and decomposes vegetation.
found on the sterile mountains of central Chile, where a drop of rain does not fall for more than six months, and within the damp forests of these southern islands. In the central parts of the Chonos Archipelago (lat. 45 degs.), the forest has very much the same character with that along the whole west coast, for 600 miles southward to Cape Horn. The arborescent grass of Chiloe is not found here; while the beech of …
Darwin rides along Punta Huantamo’s rugged coast, describes plants used for sweet pulp and cider-making, discusses the difficulty of coastal travel, and notes islanders clearing land by burning during fine weather.
The Indians ended all their complaints by saying, "And it is only because we are poor Indians, and know nothing; but it was not so when we had a King." The next day after breakfast, we rode a few miles northward to Punta Huantamo. The road lay along a very broad beach, on which, even after so many fine days, a terrible surf was breaking. I was assured that after a heavy gale, the roar can be heard at night even at…
On March 19 the party rides to the highest house in a northern Chile valley, describing fertile irrigable shingle terraces and arguing the Cordillera was gradually uplifted by torrents depositing detritus at rising sea levels.
carrying cargoes, each taking turn about. We carried a good deal of food in case we should be snowed up, as the season was rather late for passing the Portillo. March 19th.--We rode during this day to the last, and therefore most elevated, house in the valley. The number of inhabitants became scanty; but wherever water could be brought on the land, it was very fertile. All the main valleys in the Cordillera are ch…
Near March 27–29, Darwin rides to Mendoza, praises its fruit-growing with irrigation, then describes declining prosperity and returns toward Chile via the Uspallata pass and its dry, cactus-studded plains.
which the benchuca was indebted to one of the officers, kept it fat during four whole months; but, after the first fortnight, it was quite ready to have another suck. March 27th.--We rode on to Mendoza. The country was beautifully cultivated, and resembled Chile. This neighbourhood is celebrated for its fruit; and certainly nothing could appear more flourishing than the vineyards and the orchards of figs, peaches,…
From May 23 Darwin visits cultivated valleys near Coquimbo, then travels north along the coast-road toward Guasco, observing desert landscapes, faint green after showers, and Bulimus snails surviving on dew near saline sands.
most productive one north of Quillota. I believe it contains, including Coquimbo, 25,000 inhabitants. The next day I returned to the Hacienda, and thence, together with Don Jose, to Coquimbo. June 2nd.--We set out for the valley of Guasco, following the coast-road, which was considered rather less desert than the other. Our first day's ride was to a solitary house, called Yerba Buena, where there was pasture for our…
Continuing in the Guasco region, Darwin stays at Freyrina and Ballenar, compares valley forms to Santa Cruz in Patagonia, emphasizes extreme drought (no rain for thirteen months), and notes that unusually rainy years bring flooding damage and irrigation problems.
and brilliant aerial-field, which sent arms up the valleys, leaving islands and promontories in the same manner, as the sea does in the Chonos archipelago and in Tierra del Fuego. We stayed two days at Freyrina. In the valley of Guasco there are four small towns. At the mouth there is the port, a spot entirely desert, and without any water in the immediate neighbourhood. Five leagues higher up stands Freyrina, a …
Darwin surveys Indian ruins in the Cordillera (especially Ruinas de Tambillos in the Uspallata Pass), speculates on climate change and ancient habitation, and argues for long human presence in South America.
human skeletons in the caves of Brazil, the appearance of which induced him to believe that the Indian race has existed during a vast lapse of time in South America. When at Lima, I conversed on these subjects [3] with Mr. Gill, a civil engineer, who had seen much of the interior country. He told me that a conjecture of a change of climate had sometimes crossed his mind; but that he thought that the greater portion…
Darwin argues that the coastal continent of South America was uplifted hundreds to over a thousand feet since the epoch of existing shells, and he links Indian ruins’ aridity to altered drainage and irrigation failure.
animals swarm. Next to lizards, mice appear to be able to support existence on the smallest and driest portions of the earth--even on islets in the midst of great oceans. The scene on all sides showed desolation, brightened and made palpable by a clear, unclouded sky. For a time such scenery is sublime, but this feeling cannot last, and then it becomes uninteresting. We bivouacked at the foot of the "primera linea…
At the “primera linea” partition of waters, Darwin describes night wind funnels, freezing temperatures, and recounts a guide’s account of a fatal cloudless gale that killed many men and mules.
place was most gloomy; the little port, with its few vessels, and small group of wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene. The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship: every necessary comes from a distance: water is brought in boats from Pisagua, about forty miles northward, and is sold at the rate of nine reals (4s. 6d.) an eighteen-gallon cask: I bought a wine-…
Darwin describes excursions around Hobart and Mount Wellington, then sails to King George’s Sound, where he finds poor sandy soil and especially uninviting scenery despite hopes of fertility.
with land-shells, not now existing. It is not improbable that this one small quarry includes the only remaining record of the vegetation of Van Diemen's Land during one former epoch. The climate here is damper than in New South Wales, and hence the land is more fertile. Agriculture flourishes; the cultivated fields look well, and the gardens abound with thriving vegetables and fruit-trees. Some of the farm-houses, …
They pass the Little Nemaha, describe rich lowlands and grapevines with little timber, camp between islands and prairies, and note cliffs, sand and birdlife along a falling Missouri River.
unbroken plain; on the north the river is skirted with some timber, behind which the plain extends four or five miles to the hills, which seem to have little wood. July 16. We continued our route between a large island opposite to our last night's encampment, and an extensive prairie on the south. About six miles, we came to another large island, called Fairsun island, on the same side; above which is a spot, where …
Tuesday July 16 to Wednesday July 17 cover Lewis going ahead to observe latitude before the mountains, passing deserted willow booths tied to Snake Indians, then towing canoes past rapids hemmed by granite hills.
seem obviously brought there from the channel of the river by the incessant winds from that quarter: we find also more timber than for a great distance below the falls. Tuesday 16. There was a heavy dew last night. We soon passed about forty little booths, formed of willow bushes as a shelter against the sun. These seemed to have been deserted about ten days, and as we supposed by the Snake Indians, or Shoshonees, w…
The editor expands on Badakhshan’s people, arguing that their culture and wine habits reflect transitional Islamization from Kafir backgrounds, and links head-cords, sheepskin coats, and horse/cultural practices.
Both pistachioes and wild almonds are mentioned by Pandit Manphul; and see *Wood* (p. 252) on the beauty and profusion of the latter. NOTE 3.—Wood thinks that the Tajik inhabitants of Badakhshan and the adjoining districts are substantially of the same race as the Kafir tribes of Hindu Kúsh. At the time of Polo’s visit it would seem that their conversion to Islam was imperfect. They were probably in that tra…
Marco Polo’s editor describes lofty mountains with trout-filled streams and healthful air, where sick men recover after days, and adds that Badakhshan’s defensible hill towns and strong archery limit invasions.
numbers of sheep—400, 500, or 600 in a single flock, and all of them wild; and though many of them are taken, they never seem to get aught the scarcer.{6} Those mountains are so lofty that ’tis a hard day’s work, from morning till evening, to get to the top of them. On getting up, you find an extensive plain, with great abundance of grass and trees, and copious springs of pure water running down through rocks and ra…
Marco Polo returns to Hormos, describing it as a great port city with a Melic under the Soldan of Kerman, using wind-catchers (bād-gīr) in houses to survive the intense heat.
RETURNS TO THE CITY OF HORMOS WHEREOF WE SPOKE FORMERLY. When you leave the City of Calatu, and go for 300 miles between north-west and north, you come to the city of Hormos; a great and noble city on the sea.{1} It has a *Melic*, which is as much as to say a King, and he is under the Soldan of Kerman. There are a good many cities and towns belonging to Hormos, and the people are Saracens. The heat is tremendous, a…
Strabo rejects Eratosthenes’ habitable-earth distances—especially the Dnieper sharing a parallel with Britain and the huge span to Thule—using the impossibility of life at extreme latitudes as his main critique.
uninhabitable. By what guesswork he arrived at the conclusion that between the latitude of Thule and the Dnieper there was a distance of 11,500 stadia I am unable to divine. 5. Eratosthenes being mistaken as to the breadth [of the habitable earth], is necessarily wrong as to its length. The most accurate observers, both ancient and modern, agree that the known length of the habitable earth is more than twice its bre…
Strabo argues Hipparchus’ latitude math would force the Dnieper to align wrongly with Keltica near the Ocean, then insists northern regions like Hyrcania, Aria, Margiana, and Bactriana are fertile and habitable.
than to the modern, when we call to mind the numerous errors of their charts which have been pointed out by Eratosthenes, and which Hipparchus has not attempted to defend. 12. But the system of Hipparchus altogether teems with difficulties. Reflect for an instant on the following absurdity; after admitting that the southern extremity of India is under the same degree of latitude as Meroe, and that the distance from …
Strabo discusses Taprobane’s supposed size and bearings relative to Meroe and the Cinnamon Country, concluding that if Taprobane is truly southern, nearby lands must fall outside any claimed uninhabitable zones.
is estimated at not more than 5000 stadia; so that on this view they must have estimated the whole breadth of the habitable earth at 30,000 stadia, or just above. 14. Let us then transport ourselves to the land opposite the Cinnamon Country, and lying to the east under the same parallel of latitude; we shall there find the country named Taprobane.[503] This Taprobane is universally believed to be a large island situ…
Strabo supports claims of rich agriculture and climatic diversity in the eastern provinces—describing vines, honey, and winter cold near the Bosphorus—using an inscription about a frost-broken vase at Panticapaeum.
such easy navigation that the wares of India are brought up it into the sea of Hyrcania,[516] and thence successively by various other rivers to the districts near the Euxine.[517] 16. Can one find any fertility to compare with this near to the Dnieper, or that part of Keltica next the ocean,[518] where the vine either does not grow at all, or attains no maturity.[519] However, in the more southerly portions of thes…
Strabo disputes Deimachus’ stadia-based geography by arguing that, once Bactria and Aria are shifted southward relative to the torrid zone, their implied latitudes conflict with claims about habitable regions north of Ierne.
we have shown that their temperature is not so low as Amisus, Sinope, Byzantium, and Marseilles, which are universally acknowledged to be 3700 stadia south of the Dnieper and Keltica. 17. If the followers of Deimachus add to the 30,000 stadia the distance to Taprobane and the boundaries of the torrid zone, which cannot be reckoned less than 4000 stadia,[523] they will then remove Bactria and Aria from their actual l…
Strabo continues detailing Eratosthenes’ measurements of the third section’s sides (northern, southern, western, eastern) using routes and rivers, including the Euphrates and Tigris, while noting uncertainties in measured distances.
to each other; neither does he say this of the other sides, one bounded by the mountains, and the other by the sea; he simply calls them north and south. 23. Having in this manner but imperfectly traced the outlines of his second section, the third section, for various reasons, is still less exact. The first cause has been already explained, viz. that the line from the Caspian Gates to Carmania is not clearly define…
Strabo proposes a fourth section for Arabia Felix, the Arabian Gulf, and all Egypt and Ethiopia, describing how to measure its length by meridians and its breadth by parallels for irregular geography.
Sicily to a triangle, Spain to an ox-hide, or the Peloponnesus to a plane-leaf.[573] The larger the territory to be divided, the more general also ought its divisions to be. 31. [In the system of Eratosthenes], the habitable earth has been admirably divided into two parts by the Taurus and the Mediterranean Sea, which reaches to the Pillars. On the southern side, the limits of India have been described by a variety …
Continuing, Strabo discusses Hipparchus’ complaints about Eratosthenes’ fourth section, arguing about distances between Pelusium, Thapsacus, Babylon, and Thapsacus’ latitude, while rejecting Hipparchus’ inferences.
by a geometrical test, and on the other, his accuser, while endeavouring to reason like a geometrician, does not found his arguments on any real data, but on gratuitous suppositions. 36. The fourth section Hipparchus certainly manages better, though he still maintains the same censorious tone, and obstinacy in sticking to his first hypotheses, or others similar. He properly objects to Eratosthenes giving as the leng…
Strabo critiques Posidonius’ treatment of continent division and climate, arguing arts and political life depend on institutions and education more than nature; he also debates Homeric divisions of Ethiopians with reference to Aratus and Crates.
of which Homer certainly knew nothing; and says that the passage ought to be read thus, “towards the descending sun,” viz. when having passed the meridian, it begins to decline. 8. First, then, the Ethiopians next Egypt are actually separated into two divisions; one part being in Asia, the other in Libya, otherwise there is no distinction between them. But it was not on this account that Homer divided the Ethiopians…
Strabo estimates the inhabited Earth’s size within a northern quadrilateral, using geometry and surrounding seas, and assigns figures for length and breadth in stadia, also describing which parts are uninhabitable due to heat or cold.
people live miserably and like savages on account of the severity of the cold. It is here in my opinion the bounds of the habitable earth ought to be fixed. If on the one hand the parallels of Byzantium and Marseilles are the same, as Hipparchus asserts on the faith of Pytheas, (for he[719] says that at Byzantium the gnomon indicates the same amount of shadow as Pytheas gives for Marseilles,) and at the same time th…
He sums distances: from Rhodes to the northern boundary (adding 4,000 stadia beyond the Dnieper), derives total habitable breadth under 30,000 stadia and length about 70,000 stadia, and compares the shape to a tapering soldier’s cloak.
hundred and twenty ships sail from Myos-hormos[739] to India, although, in the time of the Ptolemies, scarcely any one would venture on this voyage and the commerce with the Indies. 13. Our first and most imperative duty[740] then, both in respect to science and to the necessities of the man of business, is to undertake to lay down the projection of the different countries on the chart in as clear a style as possibl…
He divides Europe into regions—describing Iberia’s seas and mountains, then Keltica’s boundaries with Rhine/Alps and the Apennines’ relation to Italy’s peninsular seas.
the Pillars, by Our Sea; and thence to the northern extremity of the Pyrenees by the Atlantic. The greatest length of this country is about 6000 stadia, its breadth 5000.[867] 28. East of this is Keltica, which extends as far as the Rhine. Its northern side is washed by the entire of the British Channel, for this island lies opposite and parallel to it throughout, extending as much as 5000 stadia in length. Its east…
Strabo shifts to climata, using Hipparchus and calculations of earth’s circumference and meridians, and sets limits of habitable earth with parallels over “Cinnamon Country” and Ierna.
the differences of the heavenly appearances for every degree of that quarter of the globe in which our habitable earth is situated, namely, from the equator to the north pole. What is beyond our habitable earth it is not however the business of the geographer to consider. Nor yet even in regard to the various parts of the habitable earth must too minute and numerous differences be noticed, since to the man of the wo…
Strabo gives a chain of latitudes and day-lengths across Iberia’s and North Africa–Eastward world, describing how parallels pass by Taprobana, Libya, Meroe, Syene, Berenice, Cyrene, and India, with measured “longest day” hours.
Cinnamon Country on the one side[934] passes a little south of Taprobana, or perhaps over its southern extremity; and on the other side[935] over the most southern parts of Libya.[936] 36. At Meroe and Ptolemais[937] in the Troglodytic the longest day consists of thirteen equinoctial hours. These cities are at nearly equal distances between the equator and Alexandria, the preponderance on the side of the equator bei…
Continuing the geography of parallels, he calculates longest days and gnomon-to-shadow proportions from Byzantium north into the Euxine and regions around the Dnieper and Maeotis, linking them to the Arctic Circle.
south of Byzantium, Nicæa,[961] and Marseilles 1500 stadia. The parallel of Lysimachia[962] is a little to the north, and according to Eratosthenes passes through Mysia,[963] Paphlagonia, Sinope,[964] Hyrcania,[965] and Bactra.[966] 41. About Byzantium the longest day consists of fifteen and a quarter equinoctial hours; the proportion borne by the gnomon to the shadow at the summer solstice, is as 120 to 42, minus o…
Strabo explains shadow-based climatic categories—amphiscii, heteroscii, periscii—and argues that the frigid uninhabitable polar regions matter little to geography, though Hipparchus’s celestial descriptions can help.
6300 stadia from Byzantium, and north of the Mæotis, the sun during the winter time is, when highest, six cubits [above the horizon]. The longest day consists of seventeen hours. 43. The countries beyond this which border upon the regions uninhabitable on account of their cold, have no interest to the geographer. He who desires to learn about them, and the celestial phenomena which Hipparchus has described, but whic…
Strabo begins a detailed country-by-country geography, introducing Spain (Iberia/Iberia as used here) with its physical shape, boundaries, and the Pyrenees separating Keltica from Iberia.
SPAIN. 1. Having thus given a general view of Geography, it will now be proper to describe each separate country in detail, as we engaged to do. We fancy that the method which we have adopted in the division of our subject, up to this point, has been correct; and we now recommence with Europe and the various countries into which it is divided, on the same principles as formerly, and induced by the same reasons. 2. …
Strabo compares Ethiopia’s extreme climate with temperate regions, describing Ethiopians as nomadic herders with small flocks, austere foods, and kings revered as gods, centering on Meroë’s geography, mines, animals, and religious beliefs.
1. In the preceding part[900] of this work we have spoken at length of Ethiopia, so that its description may be said to be included in that of Egypt. In general, then, the extreme parts of the habitable world adjacent to the intemperate region, which is not habitable by reason either of heat or cold, must necessarily be defective and inferior, in respect to physical advantages, to the temperate [CAS. 821] region. Th…
Strabo proposes a continental framework for describing Africa, arguing it is unequal to a third of the habitable world, largely desert and inhospitable, and gives a right-triangle model with distances from Alexandria to Meroë, then announces a westward account.
1. We shall next describe Africa, which is the remaining portion of the whole description of the earth. We have before said much respecting it; but at present I shall further describe what suits my purpose, and add what has not been previously mentioned.[923] The writers who have divided the habitable world according to continents, divide it unequally. But a threefold division denotes a division into three equal pa…
Keynes turns to iron-ore, arguing that taking Alsace-Lorraine requires reorganizing industry and coal-iron linkages, and that political borders will likely diminish Europe’s iron output by creating new economic frontiers and inefficiencies.
great assistance. But I reserve constructive proposals for Chapter VII. Here I am only concerned with tracing the consequences, _per impossibile*, of carrying out the Treaty *au pied de lettre_.[52] (2) The provisions relating to iron-ore require less detailed attention, though their effects are destructive. They require less attention, because they are in large measure inevitable. Almost exactly 75 per cent of the …
Lyell argues that Carboniferous coal plants had different heat and light tolerances from living species, yet fossil evidence suggests they mostly grew near where the coal now occurs rather than being transported far.
height in the torrid zone, would flourish on the plains at greater distances from the equator, if the temperature, moisture, and other necessary conditions, were equally uniform throughout the year. Nor must we forget that in all the examples above alluded to, we have been speaking of *living* species; but the coal-plants were of perfectly distinct species, nay, few of them except the ferns and pines can be referred…
Lyell links Carboniferous fossils to warmer northern seas and notes that later, from the eocene through the pliocene, global temperatures fell toward the glacial epoch in European latitudes.
been the origin of some coal-seams is proved by the upright position of fossil trees, both in Europe and America, in which the roots terminate downwards in beds of coal.[164] To return, therefore, from this digression,--the flora of the coal appears to indicate a uniform and mild temperature in the air, while the fossils of the contemporaneous mountain-limestone, comprising abundance of lamelliferous corals, large c…
Lyell surveys traditional explanations for climate change—earth-axis shifts, comet shocks, and cooling from a red-hot origin—and rejects them in favor of linking climate to land–sea distribution and natural law.
FARTHER EXAMINATION OF THE QUESTION AS TO THE ASSUMED DISCORDANCE OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN CAUSES OF CHANGE. On the causes of vicissitudes in climate--Remarks on the present diffusion of heat over the globe--On the dependence of the mean temperature on the relative position of land and sea--Isothermal Lines--Currents from equatorial regions--Drifting of icebergs--Different temperature of Northern an…
He explains how diffusion of heat varies globally: isothermal and equal-warmth zones are not aligned with latitude, and continental vs oceanic positioning—illustrated by Europe vs North America and Greenland vs Lapland—drives major temperature differences.
not to revolutions in her economy;--they should stimulate us to farther research, not tempt us to indulge our fancies respecting the imaginary changes of internal temperature in an embryo world. *Diffusion of Heat over the Globe.*--In considering the laws which regulate the diffusion of heat over the globe, we must be careful, as Humboldt well remarks, not to regard the climate of Europe as a type of the temperature…
Lyell contrasts insular and continental climates and discusses how ocean currents, wind, and drifting ice alter temperatures, giving examples such as the Lagullas current, equatorial current, and Gulf Stream.
Greenland, forming part of a continent which stretches northward to the 82d degree of latitude, experiences under the 60th parallel a more rigorous climate than Lapland under the 72d parallel. But if land be situated between the 40th parallel and the equator, it produces, unless it be of extreme height, exactly the opposite effect; for it then warms the tracts of land or sea that intervene between it and the polar c…
Lyell describes how repeated iceberg stranding and colder seas from Greenland cause fogs and crop failures in Iceland and drive fish from coasts, emphasizing ice–atmosphere feedback.
as being fresh (having lost its salt in the decomposing process of freezing), and because its temperature is nearer the freezing point than the inferior water of the Gulf stream. The great glaciers generated in the valleys of Spitzbergen, in the 79 degrees of north latitude, are almost all cut off at the beach, being melted by the feeble remnant of heat still retained by the Gulf stream. In Baffin's Bay, on the cont…
Comparing hemispheres, Lyell argues the southern climate is shaped by the vast southern ocean, yielding mild winters and cool summers, and supports this with observations from Van Diemen’s Land and extreme southern flora and birds.
had been at the freezing point." Mr. Darwin also saw parrots feeding on the seeds of a tree called the winter's bark, south of lat. 55 degrees, near Cape Horn.[176] So the orchideous plants which are parasitical on trees, and are generally characteristic of the tropics, advance to the 38th and 42d degree of S. lat., and even beyond the 45th degree in New Zealand, where they were found by Forster. In South America al…
Lyell reports that southern high latitudes are colder and snowier than northern regions at similar latitudes, using Cook’s and Ross’s expeditions and Humboldt’s conclusions about ice, land, and heat radiation.
degrees 10 minutes S., as high a latitude, within three degrees, as the farthest point attained by Captain Parry in the arctic circle, or lat. 81 degrees 12 minutes North. The description given by ancient as well as modern navigators of the sea and land in high southern latitudes, clearly attests the greater severity of the climate as compared to arctic regions. In Sandwich Land, in lat. 59 degrees S., or in nearly …
He explains Antarctic cold via high polar land and barrier ice (Victoria Land, Mount Erebus, Graham’s and Enderby’s Land), compares iceberg drift limits between hemispheres, and speculates about iceberg hazards to the Mediterranean.
the present continents are not opposite to it; and this circumstance seems explicable only on the principle above alluded to, of the radiation of heat from the lands so situated. The cold of the antarctic regions was conjectured by Cook to be due to the existence of a large tract of land between the seventieth degree of south latitude and the pole. The justness of these and other speculations of that great navigator…