Note 36 — Chapter I · THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
Reading edition
Hist. nat., II, 64. Both Cleomedes and Pliny demonstrated the sphericity of the sea by noting that mountains may be seen when the lower parts of the land are invisible and that shores become visible from the masthead of a ship before persons on deck can see them. Pliny (op. cit., II, 65) had a theory to explain the sphericity of the sea that differed widely from that of Aristotle. The gist of this was that it is in the inherent nature of water to assume a spherical form. Traces of this view are to be found in the writings of Alexander Neckam in the thirteenth century. See below, p. 438, note 34.