CHAP, xiii.] THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS. 477 



The Voyage of Pytheas. 



We have seen that in the year 500 B.C. the explora- 

 tion of the Northern Seas had advanced as far as 

 Cornwall and Ireland by Himilco and the Phoenicians. 

 The opening up. of the English Channel and the North 

 Sea was due to the Greeks of Massilia. About the year 

 B.C. 325 -an expedition was fitted out to explore the far 

 north under Pytheas, an eminent astronomer and mathe- 

 matician. He set sail from Massilia, and passing through 

 the Pillars of Hercules, coasted along the shores of Spain 

 and of western France to Cape Calbium (Point du Eaz), 

 and the island of Uxisame (Ushant) off the coast of 

 Brittany. Thence he passed northwards to the British 

 coast, and sailed along the shores of the southern coun- 

 ties until he entered the Straits and arrived at the pro- 

 montory of Cantium (the North Foreland). He is said 

 to have spent some time in Britain. He then followed 

 the English coast northwards, and leaving it after a 

 voyage of six days discovered Thule (Norway), which he 

 naturally took to be an island, the most northern of all 

 countries, surrounded by a sea frozen into slush, which 

 rendered farther advance impossible. He tells us that 

 in the regions about Thule, 1 at the time of the summer 

 solstice, there is half a year of day; but this probably 

 refers to his own speculations, since he was not six 

 months in the region. 



1 Wiberg takes Thule to be Jutland ; but from tlie fact that Solinus 

 (A.D. 80) mentions the Hebrides as being two days' sail from the Cale- 

 donian headland " in the direction of Thule," while the Orcades are five 

 days' sail from Thule, it cannot be other than Norway. The "sea- 

 blubber" of Pytheas is the peculiar soft slush which the sea-water 

 becomes at the beginning of winter in the Arctic regions. 



