[footnote] *Strabo, lib. ii., p. 92, 198. Casaub.
Africa* and South America, which manifest so great a resemblence in their
configuration, are also the two continents that exhibit the simplest
littoral outlines.
[footnote] *Of Africa, Pliny says (v. 1), "Nec alia pars terrarum paudiores
recipit sinus." The small Indian peninsula on this side the Ganges present,
in its triangular outline, a third analogous form. In ancient Greece there
prevailed an opinion of the regular configuration of the dry land. There
were four gulfs or bays, among which the Persian Gulf was placed in
opposition to the Hyrcanian or Caspian Sea (Arrian, vii., 16; Plut., 'in
vita Alexandri', cap. 44; Dionys. Perieg., v. 48 and 630, p. 11, 38,
Bernh.). These four bays and the isthmuses were, according to the optical
fancies of Agesianax, supposed to be reflected in the moon (Plut., 'de Facie
in Orbem Lunae', p. 921, 19). Respecting the 'terra quadrifida', or four
divisions of the dry land, of which two lay north and two south of the
equator, see Macrobius, 'Comm. in Somnium Scipionis', ii., 9. I have
submitted this portion of the geography of the ancients, regarding which
great confusion prevails, to a new and careful examination, in my 'Examen
Crit.
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