On the Magnet/IV-18
CHAP. XVIII.
On the variation in the Mediterranean Sea.
icilian and Italian sailors think that in the Sicilian Sea and toward the east up to the meridian of the Peloponnesus (as Franciscus Maurolycus relates) the magnetick needle "græcizes," that is, turns from the pole toward what is called the greek wind or Boreas; that on the shore of the Peloponnesus it looks toward the true pole; but that when they have proceeded further east, then it "mistralizes," because it tends from the pole toward the mistral or north-west wind: which agrees with our rule for the variation. For as the Mediterranean Sea is extended toward the west from that meridian, so on the side toward the east the Mediterranean Sea lies open as far as Palestine; as toward North and East lie open the whole Archipelago and the neighbouring Black Sea. From the Peloponnesus toward the north pole the meridian passes through the largest and most elevated regions of all Europe; through Achaia, Macedonia, Hungary, Transylvania, Lithuania, Novogardia, Corelia and Biarmia.