Chapter 12: On the waters

2. The two most powerful elements of human life are fire and water, whence they who are forbidden fire and water are seriously punished.

3. The element of water is master of all the rest. For the waters temper the heavens, fertilize the earth, incorporate air in their exhalations, climb aloft and claim the heavens; for what is more marvelous than the waters keeping their place in the heavens!

4. It is too small a thing to come to such a height; they carry with them thither swarms of fishes; pouring forth, they are the cause of all growth on the earth. They produce fruits, they make fruit trees and herbs grow, they scour away filth, wash away sin, and give drink to all living things.

Chapter 13. On the different qualities of waters.

5. Linus, a fountain of Arcadia, does not allow miscarriages to take place. In Sicily are two springs, of which one makes the sterile woman fertile, the other makes the fertile, sterile. In Thessaly are two rivers; they say that sheep drinking from one become black; from the other, white; from both, parti-colored.

10. Hot springs in Sardinia cure the eyes; they betray thieves, for their guilt is revealed by blindness. They say there is a spring in Epirus in which lighted torches are extinguished, and torches that are extinguished are lighted. Among the Garamantes they say there is a spring so cold in the daytime that it cannot be drunk, so hot at night that it cannot be touched.

Chapter 14. On the sea.

2. ... The depth of the sea varies; still the level of its surface is invariable.

3. Moreover that the sea does not increase, though it receives all streams and all springs, is accounted for in this way; partly that its very greatness does not feel the waters flowing in; secondly, because the bitter water consumes the fresh that is added, or that the clouds draw up much water to themselves, or that the winds carry it off, and the sun partly dries it up; lastly, because the water leaks through certain secret holes in the earth, and turns and runs back to the sources of rivers and to the springs.

Chapter 15. On the ocean.

1. _Oceanus_ is so named by both Greeks and Latins because it flows like a circle around the circle of the land; it may be from its speed because it runs swiftly (_ocius_); or because like the heavens it glows with a dark purple color. _Oceanus_ is, as it were, κυάνεος (dark purple). It is this that embraces the shores of the lands, approaching and receding with alternate tides. For when the winds breathe in the depths, it either pushes the waters away or sucks them back.

2. And it has taken different names from the neighboring lands; as _Gallicus_, _Germanicus_, _Scythicus_, _Caspius_, _Hyrcanus_, _Atlanticus_, _Gaditanus_. The Gaditanian strait was named from _Gades_ where the entrance to the _Mare Magnum_ first opens from the Ocean. Whence when Hercules had come to Gades he placed the columns there, believing that there was the limit of the circle of the lands.

Chapter 16. On the Mediterranean Sea.

1. The _Mare Magnum_ is that which flows from the west out of the Ocean and extends toward the South, and then stretches to the North. And it is called _Magnum_ because the rest of the seas are smaller in comparison with it. It is also called Mediterranean because it flows through the midst of the land (_per mediam terram_) as far as the Orient, separating Europe and Africa and Asia.

Chapter 20. On the abyss.

1. The abyss is the deep water which cannot be penetrated; whether caverns of unknown waters from which springs and rivers flow; or the waters that pass secretly beneath, whence it is called abyss. For all waters or torrents return by secret channels to the abyss which is their source.