16
Then, too, air is everywhere equal; though neither winter nor cold is identical everywhere. It is no accident that some parts of the world are cold and damp, while others are hot and dry; it is due to the existence of a single substance that includes coldness and wetness in one. The greater part of Africa is hot and without water; while those who have travelled through Scythia, Thrace, and PontusPlutarch may be thinking of the old kingdom of Pontus, which included tracts south, east, and north of the Black Sea. report that these regions have great lakes or marshes and are traversed by many deep rivers. As for the regions that lie between, those that are near lakes and marshes are especially cold because of the exhalations from the water, Posidonius,The fragment has not yet been numbered in L. Edelstein’s forthcoming collection; for the literature see A.J.P. lvii (1936), p. 301 and n. 61. then, in affirming that the freshness and moistness of marsh air is the reason for the cold, has done nothing to disturb the plausibility of the argument; he has, rather, made it more plausible. For fresh air would not always seem colder if cold did not take its origin from moisture. So HomerOdyssey, v. 469. spoke more truly when he affirmed The river-air blows chill before the dawn, thereby indicating the source of coldness.
