2»<» S. VI. 131., JuLV 3. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



bank should be localised on the large river which 

 falls into the upper part of the Adriatic (see Bim- 

 bury in Dr. Smith's Geogr. Diet., art. Eridanus). 

 The collection of marvellous stories ascribed to 

 Aristotle, written about 300 b.c, describes amber 

 as a gum which liquefied from poplars near the Eri- 

 danus, in the extremity of the Adriatic, and which. 

 Laving hardened into the consistency of a stone, 

 was collected by the natives, and exported into 

 Greece (De Mirab. Aasc. c. 81., see also Seymnus, 

 V. 395.). Ovid relates this story in its origin.il 

 form of a metamorphosis, and shows how the tears 

 of the Heliades hardened by the sun, and falling 

 into the Eridanus, produced ornaments for the 

 Roman ladies. 



" Cortex ill verba novissima venit. 

 Inde fluiint lacrima?, stillataque sole rigescunt 

 De ramis electra iiovis, qu* lucidus amnis 

 Excipit, et mu-ibus mittit gestanda Latinis." 



3Iet. ii. 363—6. 



An unnecessary attempt has been made by some 

 writers to identify the Eriiianus with some real 

 river fallinjj into the Baltic having a name of simi- 

 lar sound (see Bayer de VenecUs et Eridano Flu- 

 vio in Comm. Acad. Petrop. 1740, vol. vii. p. 3.31.); 

 but Heeren has remarked with justice that the 

 Eridanus is a fabulous stream, which existed only 

 in popular legend, and in the imagination of poets; 

 and that nothing is gained by explaining it to 

 mean the Rhine or the Raduna; the truth being 

 that all such interpretations are purely arbitrary 

 (Ideen, ii. 1. p. 179.). 



The story of amber being found near a river, as 

 in the mythological fable, or in an island, as in 

 the accounts of Pytheas and Timseus, does not 

 rest on any foundation of fact. Even the insula 

 Glessaria, which must be one of the islands to the 

 east of the Helder, off the coast of Holland and 

 Friesland, appears to have received its name from 

 some accidental connexion with amber; as the is- 

 lands on this coast are not known to have yielded 

 that substance. The notion of amber being 

 Ibund in islands gave rise to the belief in the 

 existence of the Electrides at the mouth of the 

 Po, at the extremity of the Adriatic (Aristot. ib. ; 

 Steph. Byz. in v. ; Mela, ii. 7.). Both Strabo and 

 Pliny (?Z>.) remark that the Electrid islands are a 

 fiction, and that none such exist in the spot indi- 

 cated. It may be remarked tliat the obscurity of 

 vision, caused by distance, multiplied Britain into 

 a group of tin islands (Cassiterides). 



There is no mention of amber in the Old Testa- 

 ment, and, after the facts above collected, we may 

 confidently reject the suggestion of Heeren, that 

 the Tyrians sailed into the Baltic, and traded di- 

 rectly with the Prussian coast (ib. p. 178.). P^ven 

 with respect to tin, nearly all our positive evidence 

 points to its being brougiit from Britain across 

 (>aul to Massilia, 'J'he fact of its being called 

 " Celtic tin," in the Aristotelic collection of Mar- 



vellous Stories, affords a strong presumption that 

 it was known to the Greeks of that age merely as 

 an article procured at a Celtic port. The remark 

 of HUllmann, as to trade with remote countries 

 being carried on by land in early times, seems to 

 apply to tin not less than to amber. (See " N. & 

 Q.," 2°* S. v. 101.) 



We learn from Pliny that Hanno, during the 

 prosperous period of Carthage, sailed from Gades 

 to the extremity of Arabia, and left a written ac- 

 count of his voyage. He adds that Himilco was 

 sent at the same time to examine the external 

 coasts of Europe (ii. 67., and see v. 1.). The 

 periplus of Hanno is extant ; his voyage was 

 partly for the foundation of colonies, and partly for 

 discovery; he is supposed to have sailed along the 

 coast as far as Sierra Leone; and, according to the 

 best-considered conjecture, his expedition took 

 place about 470 B.C. (C. Miiller, Geo^?-. GrcBC.Min. 

 vol. i. Prol. p. xxii.) The discoveries of Himilco, 

 as preserved in a written record, are referred to by 

 Avienus in his geographical poem, the Ora Mari- 

 tima. He describes certain islands, called the 

 (Estrymnian islands, off the coast of Spain, with 

 which the Tartessians traded, which produced tin 

 and lead, and which were only two days' sail from 

 the islands of the Hibernians and the Albiones. 

 He proceeds to say that the Carthaginians, both 

 of the mother-country and the colonies, passed 

 the Pillars of Hercules, and navigated the western 

 sea. Himilco stated from personal experience 

 that the voyage occupied at least four months, and 

 he described the dangers of these unknown waters 

 by saying that there was no wind to impel the 

 ship; that its course was impeded by weed ; and 

 that while in this helpless state, it was surrounded 

 by marine monsters (v. 80 — 119.). If the date of 

 the voyages of Hanno and Himilco is correctly 

 fixed, it follows that, at a period subsequent to the 

 expedition of Xerxes, the Carthaginians, though 

 there was a Phoenician establishment at Gades, 

 had not carried their navigation far along the 

 coasts of the Atlantic ; and that they then sent 

 out two voyages of discovery — one to the south, 

 the other to the north — at the public expense. 

 The report of Himilco, that the voyage from Gades 

 to the tin islands (i. e. to Cornwall) occupied at 

 least four months ; and that navigation in these 

 remote waters was impeded by the motionless air, 

 by. the abundance of seaweed, and by the monsters 

 of the deep, — fables which the ancient mariners re- 

 counted of unexplored seas, — could not be very at- 

 tractive to the traders of the Carthaginian colonies. 

 We learn however from Scyla.x that in his time 

 the Carthaginians had established many factories 

 to the west of the Pillars of Hercules ; and it is 

 highly probable that the merciiants who dwelt in 

 them may have sailed along the coasts of Spain 

 and (iaul for a certain distance to the north. 

 Whatever were the profits of this distant trade, 



