miles. The difference of latitude between Gibraltar and Alexandria is 4° 54′ 10″. Theſe, reckoned in the uſual way of latitude and departure, amount to 2035 Engliſh miles, equal to 2229 Greek miles, which, divided by 75, give about 29⅔ Greek miles for each day's fail. But I muſt ſay, that this inſtance is not fairly adduced. Scylax expreſſly aſſigns this time to a ſhip that ſailed round the bays[1] and gulphs that lay in the line of paſſage, not to one that ſailed directly to the point aimed at. This circumſtance makes a material difference. Had Mr. Rennel drawn his concluſion from an inſtance he might have found a few lines above, in the ſame author, it might perhaps have been different: Scylax there ſays, that a ſhip under favourable circumſtances might ſail from Carthage to Hercules's Pillars in ſeven days and ſeven nights.
Carthage lies nearly in the ſame latitude with Gibraltar, and at leaſt 15° Eaſt, which in latitude 36.5 amounts to 56 Engliſh miles and a ſmall fraction over to a degree. This multiplied by 15 is equal to 840 Engliſh miles, or 917 Greek miles; or 131 Greek miles, or 1048 ſtadia, in twenty-four hours.
The fifth inſtance he brings is from the Red ſea, which, he ſays, from Herodotus, is forty days of navigation. Its length, according to the track a ſhip muſt make through it, is about 1300 miles, which makes a rate of ſaling about 32 miles a day. But I cannot think the navigation of the Red ſea proper to be brought as an inſtance to eſtimate the diſtance which might be failed by the ſhips of antiquity, or indeed by any ſhips whatever. Mr. Irwin obſerves, that from its narrowneſs it is ſoon agitated; that it abounds
- ↑ Κατὰ τοὺς κόλπους κύκλῳ περιπλίοντι ἡμερῶν οέ, δ'. Scylac. Perip.
