On the variation in the Mediterranean Sea.
Sicilian and Italian sailors think that in the Sicilian Sea and toward the
east up to the meridian of the Peloponnesus (as Franciscus Maurolycus
relates) the magnetick needle "græcizes," that is, turns from the pole
toward what is called the greek wind or Boreas; that on the shore of the
Peloponnesus it looks toward the true pole; but that when they have
proceeded further east, then it "mistralizes," because it tends from the
pole toward the mistral or north-west wind: which agrees with our rule for
the variation. For as the Mediterranean Sea is extended toward the west
from that meridian, so on the side {181} toward the east the Mediterranean
Sea lies open as far as Palestine; as toward North and East lie open the
whole Archipelago and the neighbouring Black Sea. From the Peloponnesus
toward the north pole the meridian passes through the largest and most
elevated regions of all Europe; through Achaia, Macedonia, Hungary,
Transylvania, Lithuania, Novogardia, Corelia and Biarmia.
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