s ... the breadth from south to north is commonly supposed to be
half its length."

But how little was known of the north of Europe at this time is shown
by a startling statement that "certain Indians sailing from India for
the purposes of commerce had been driven by tempests into Germany."

"Thus it appears," concludes Pliny, "that the seas flow completely
round the globe and divide it into two parts."

How Balbus discovered and claimed for the Empire some of the African
desert is related by Pliny. He tells us, too, how another Roman general
left the west coast of Africa, marched for ten days, reached Mt. Atlas,
and "in a desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he supposed
to be the Niger."

The home of the Ethiopians in Africa likewise interested Pliny.

"There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians are scorched by their
vicinity to the sun's heat, and that they are born like persons who
have been burned, with beard and hair frizzled, while in the opposite
and frozen parts of the earth there are nations with white skins and
long light hair."

Pliny's geography was the basis of much mediaeval writing, and his
knowledge of the course of the Niger remained unchallenged, till Mungo
Park re-discovered it many centuries after.

[Illustration: A ROMAN GALLEY, ABOUT 110 A.D. From Trajan's Column
at Rome.]

CHAPTER X

PTOLEMY'S MAPS

And so we reach the days of Ptolemy--the last geographer of the Pagan
World. This famous Greek was born in Egypt, and the great Roman Empire
was already showing signs of decay, while Ptolemy was searching the
great Alexandrian library for materials for his book. Alexandria was
now the first commercial city of the world, second only to Rome. She
supplied the great population in the heart of the Empire with Egyptian
corn. Ships sailed from Alexandria to every part of the known world.
It was, therefore, a suitable place for Ptolemy to listen to the yarns
of the merchants, to read the works of Homer, Herodotus, Eratosthenes,
Strabo, Pliny, and others, to study and observe, and finally to write.

He begins his great geography with the north-west extremities of the
world--the British Isles, Iverna, and Albion as he calls Ireland and
England. But he places Ireland much too far north, and the shape of
Scotland has little resemblance to the original.[2] He realised that
there were lands to the south of Africa, to the east of Africa, and
to the north of Europe, all stretching far a