¹ It appears that Strabo asserted that Seleucus, the demonstrator of the heliocentric idea, was a Babylonian, and that the name of Pitagura (Pythagoras) has been discovered by Dr. Oppert, in cuneiform characters, on an Assyrian inscription.

² It behoves our gallant countryman, Col. George Greenwood, to look to his laurels, for, if we mistake not, the Geographer Strabo, 1800 years ago, (or even Strato three centuries earlier) established most satisfactorily the doctrine of “Rain and Rivers!” The shallowing of the Euxine was attributed by Strato to “the numerous large rivers which pour into it from the east and north, and by degrees fill it up with sediment” (p. 98); whilst Strabo observes (p. 101) “it is clear that all the sediment carried down by the rivers into the sea cannot remain in it” (in a state of suspension), but must be thrown out, and join the base of the coast-line. It therefore accumulates, by degrees, in the depth of the shore and forms a low tract of land.” Other passages also prove that Strabo quite understood how the delta of the Nile and other large rivers had been formed.