132 COSMOS. 



the Baltic, owed its origin to the daring perseverance 

 of Phoenician coasting traders. Its subsequent extension af- 

 fords a remarkable example in the history of the contempla- 

 tion of the universe, of the influence which may be exercised 

 on the establishment of international intercourse, and oti the 

 extension of the knowledge of large tracts of land, by a predi- 

 lection for even a single product. In the same manner as the 

 Phoesan Massilians conveyed British tin through the whole 

 extent of Gaul to the shores of the Rhone, amber passed from 

 people to people through Germany and the territory of the 

 Celts, on both sides of the Alps, to the Padus, and through 

 Pannonia to the Borysthenes. This inland trade thus first 

 connected the inhabitants of the coasts of the North Sea with 

 those living on the shores of the Adriatic and the Euxine. 



The Phreniciaris of Carthage, and probably those inhabit- 

 ing the cities of Tartessus and Gades, which had been colon- 

 ized two hundred years earlier, visited a considerable portion 

 of the northwest coast of Africa, even beyond Cape Bojador, 

 although the Chretes of Hanno is neither the Chremetes of 

 the Meteorologica of Aristotle, nor yet our Gambia.* Here 

 were situated the numerous Tyrian cities, whose numbers were 

 estimated by Strabo at 300, which were destroyed by Pharu- 

 siaris and Nigritians. Among these was Cerne (Dicuil's Gau- 

 lea according to Letronne), the principal station for ships, as 

 well as the chief emporium of the colonies on the coast. The 

 Canary Islands and the Azores (which latter were regarded 

 by Don Fernando, the son of Columbus, as the Cassiterides 



in Scythia was, in part, very dark colored." Amber is still collected 

 near Kaltschedansk, not far from Kamensk, on the Ural ; and we have 

 obtained at Katharinenburg fragments imbedded in lignite. See G. 

 Rose, Rcise nach dem Ural, bd. i., s. 481; and Sir Roderic Murchison, 

 in the Geology of Russia, vol. i., p. 366. The petrified wood which 

 frequently surrounds the amber had early attracted the attention of the 

 ancients. This resin, which was, at that time, regarded as so precious 

 a product, was ascribed either to the black poplar (according to the 

 Chian Scymnus, v. 396, p. 367, Letronne), or to a tree of the cedar or 

 pine genus (according to Mithridates, in Plin., xxxvii., cap. 2 and 3). 

 The recent admirable investigations of Prof. Goppert, at Breslau, have 

 shown that the conjecture of the Roman collector was the more correct. 

 Respecting the petrified amber-tree (Pinites succifer) belonging to an 

 extinct vegetation, see Berendt, Organische Reste im Bernstein, bd. i., 

 abth. 1, 1845, s. 89. 



* On the Chremetes, see Aristot., Meteor., lib. i., p. 350 (Bekk.); and 

 on the most southern points of whicli Hanno makes mention in his 

 ship's journal, see my Rel. Hist., t. i., p. 172; and Examen Crit. de la 

 G6og., t. i., p. 39, 180, and 288; t. iii., p. 135. Gosselin. Reche.rches sur 

 la G6og. System, des Anciens, t. i., p. 94 and 98; Ukert, th. i., 1, s. 6] -66 



