The River of Ocean — Primitive : 83 



sel called the curragh which was in common use in ancient Ireland 

 and probably also on other shores. 



The account refers to a people called Hierne who inhabited the 

 island, apparently the Irish people, and refers to another island called 

 Albion. According to Avienus, Himilco said that the seas in all these 

 parts were inhabited by terrible and threatening serpents or monsters 

 of the deep but also that the winds over these seas were sluggish and 

 fitful; that the seas themselves were so clogged with seaweed that 

 they impeded the progress of a ship and also that they were so shal- 

 low as to be continually muddy. Voyages were said to take an 

 incredibly long time. Stefansson believes that the terrifying descrip- 

 tions of navigation in the Atlantic were not the result of superstition 

 or cowardice on the part of the Phoenicians but were a part of a stud- 

 ied policy. They were invented to mislead and terrify Greek sailors 

 who were potential competitors in colonization and in the develop- 

 ment of trade, particularly trade in the metals in which Phoenicians 

 seem to have specialized. 



A more developed and realistic account is supplied by the Greek 

 navigator, scientist and explorer Pythias who made a very extensive 

 voyage in 330 b.c. The part of his trip that interests us for the mo- 

 ment is that he visited and described the tin mines and the island on 

 which tin was stored. The island might well have been St. Michael's 

 in Mount's Bay. Pythias is impressed with the way in which the min- 

 ers dig galleries in the earth, following the vein of metal-bearing ore. 

 He observes that the miners are friendly, gentle and intelligent. He 

 attributes this to the fact that they have a very extensive trade and 

 that this brings them in contact with people from many foreign 

 nations. 



Pythias' own book is lost so that what we know of him always 

 reaches us from quotation, but this passage seems to be plain enough. 

 He is saying that the people of Cornwall are notable as good business- 

 men with an urbane and cosmopolitan attitude which comes from 

 dealing with people of many different nations. In other words, Corn- 

 wall is the site of an extensive trade by sea from many different direc- 

 tions. This is simple confirmation from a classic literary source of 

 what we have in our own day learned from extensive archaeological 

 explorations. At least as early as 500 b.c. sailing vessels produced in 

 northern Europe were connecting the continent with Cornwall — 

 Cornwall with Ireland — Ireland with Scodand and so on in a widen- 

 ing circle which apparently also included the Scandinavian countries. 



