WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)

Chapter 104: CHAP. 100.—WHERE THE TIDES RISE AND FALL IN AN UNUSUAL MANNER.
Open in WeRead

About This Book

The text assembles a systematic survey of the natural world, opening with cosmological and geographical discussions and proceeding through plants, animals, minerals, and human uses of natural substances. It synthesizes reports from earlier authors, travelers, and craftsmen, combining empirical observation, hearsay, and learned commentary to describe physical phenomena, medicinal remedies, technologies, and curiosities. Organized as an encyclopedic sequence of books and chapters, it catalogues facts and theories, cites authorities, and balances practical instruction with natural-philosophical reflection.

CHAP. 100.—WHERE THE TIDES RISE AND FALL IN AN UNUSUAL MANNER.

There are, however, some tides which are of a peculiar nature, as in the Tauromenian Euripus622, where the ebb and flow is more frequent than in other places, and in Eubœa, where it takes place seven times during the day and the night. The tides intermit three times during each month, being the 7th, 8th and 9th day of the moon623. At Gades, which is very near the temple of Hercules, there is a spring enclosed like a well, which sometimes rises and falls with the ocean, and, at other times, in both respects contrary to it. In the same place there is another well, which always agrees with the ocean. On the shores of the Bætis624, there is a town where the wells become lower when the tide rises, and fill again when it ebbs; while at other times they remain stationary. The same thing occurs in one well in the town of Hispalis625, while there is nothing peculiar in the other wells. The Euxine always flows into the Propontis, the water never flowing back into the Euxine626.