NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

219

NOTE XXIX. Sect. II. p. 70.

The consequence of this mistake is remarkable. Ptolemy,lib. vii. c. 1., computes the longitude of Barygaza, orBaroach, to be 17* 2o / ; and that of Cory, or CapeComorin , to be i20L which is ..the difference of fourdegrees precisely; whereas the real difference betweenthese two places is nearly fourteen degrees.

NOTE XXX. Sect. II. p. 70.

Ramufio, the publisher of the most ancient and perhapsthe most valuable Collection of Voyages, is the first person,as far as I know, who takes notice of this strange errorof Ptolemy j Viaggj , vol. i. p. 18'. He justly observes,that the Author of the Circumnavigation of the ErythræanSea had been - more accurate , and bad described thepeninsula of India as extending from north to south ;Peripl. p. 24. 29.

NOTE XXXI. Sect. II. p. 7;.

This error of Ptolemy justly merits the name of enormous,which I have given to it; and it will appear more sur-prising when we recollect , that he must have been acquaint-ed, not only with what Herodotus relates concerning .thecircumnavigation of Africa, by order of one of the Egyptiankings, Lib. iv. c. 4., but with the opinion of Eratost-henes , who held that the great extent of the Atlantic oceanwas the only thing which prevented a communicationbetween Europe and India by sea ; Strab. Geogr. lib. i.p. 113. A. This error, however, must not be imputed