Page:Ancient India as described by Ptolemy - John Watson McCrindle.djvu/38

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

23

distance right across may, therefore, be estimated at about 2,030 stadia, since we have to deduct a third because of the navigation having followed the curvature of the Gulf, and have also to make allowances for irregularities in the length of the courses run. § 3. If now we further reduce this amount by a third, because the sailing, though subject to interruption, was taken as continuous, there remain 1,850 stadia, determining the position of Kouroula as situated north-east from Kory. § 4. If now this distance be referred to a line running parallel to the equator and towards the East, and we reduce its length by half in accordance with the intercepted angle, we shall have as the distance between the meridian of Kouroula and that of K6ry, 675 stadia, or 1^ degree, since the parallels of these places do not differ materially from the great circle.[1]

§ 6. But to proceed : the course of the voyage from Kouroura lies, he says, to the southeast as far as Paloura, the distance being 9,450 stadia. Here, if we deduct as before one-third for the irregularities in the length of the courses, we shall have the distance on account of the navigation having been continuous to

  1. By the intercepted angle is meant the angle contained by two straight lines drawn from Kdry, one running north-east to Kouroula and the other parallel to the Equator. In Ptolemy's map Kouroula is so placed that its distance in a straight line from Kory is about double the distance between the meridians of those two places.