ON
THE DISTANCE
WHICH THE
ANCIENT SHIPS
SAILED IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.
It is not my intention to diſcuſs here the ſubject of ancient navigation; but, a few obſervations on the diſtances which the'veſſels of antiquity could fail in twenty-four hours, may not be foreign to the ſubject, and tend to illuſtrate the Voyage now under conſideration.
Scylax ſays, that a ſhip will ſail 500 ſtadia, or 57 Engliſh miles, in the courſe of a day; by which it is clear that he means a day only, and not a day and a night, as, when he means both, they are always ſo ſpecified. Ptolemy mentions 1000 ſtadia as the diſtance that a ſhip will fail in a day and a night; from which it appears, that as great a diſtance was allowed for the navigation of the night as for that of the day.
The diſtances ſpecified by Scylax (though many of them are eſtimated by the ſpace which a ſhip will ſail in a day, or a
