He
Has, However, Added Two Articles Of Information To The Geographical And
Commercial Knowledge Of The East Possessed Before His
Time; the one is the
account of the new course of navigation from Arabia to the coast of
Malabar, which
Has been already described; the other is a description of
Trapobane, or Ceylon, which, though inaccurate and obscure in many points,
must be regarded as a real and important addition to the geographical
knowledge of the Romans.
Pliny's geography of the north is the most full and curious of all
antiquity. After describing the Hellespont, Moeotis, Dacia, Sarmatia,
ancient Scythia, and the isles in the Euxine Sea, and proceeding last from
Spain, he passes north to the Scythic Ocean, and returns west towards
Spain. The coast of part of the Baltic seems to have been partly known to
him; he particularly mentions an island called Baltia, where amber was
found; but he supposes that the Baltic Sea itself was connected with the
Caspian and Indian Oceans. Pliny is the first author who names Scandinavia,
which he represents as an island, the extent of which was not then known;
but by Scandinavia there is reason to believe the present Scandia is meant.
Denmark may probably be rcognised in the Dumnor of this author, and Norway
in Noligen. The mountain Soevo, which he describes as forming a vast bay
called Codanus, extending to the promontory of the Cimbri, is supposed by
some to be the mountains that run along the Vistula on the eastern
extremity of Germany, and by others to be that chain of mountains which
commence at Gottenburgh.
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