46 AMBER FROM GERMAN OCEAN. 



Unless, then, the ancients had some source of tin with 

 which we are unacquainted, it seems to be well established, 

 and is indeed admitted even by Sir Cornewall Lewis, that the 

 Phoenician tin was mainly, if not altogether, derived from 

 Cornwall, and, consequently, that even at this early period 

 a considerable commerce had been organised, and very dis- 

 tant countries brought into connexion with one another. Sir 

 C. Lewis, however, considers that the tin was "carried across 

 Gaul to Massilia, and imported thence into Greece and Italy." 

 Doubtless, much of it did in late times come by this route, 

 but the Phoenicians were in the plenitude of their power 

 1200 years B.C., while Massilia was not built until 600 B.C. 

 Moreover, Strabo expressly says that in early times the 

 Phoenicians carried on the tin trade from Cadiz, which we 

 must remember was nearer to Cornwall than to Tyre or 

 Sidon. 



We are, therefore, surely quite justified in concluding that 

 between B.C. 1500 and B.C. 1200, the Phoenicians sailed into 

 the Atlantic, and discovered the mineral fields of Spain and 

 Britain; and, when we consider how well our South Coast 

 must have been known to them, it is, I think, more than 

 probable that they pushed their explorations still farther, in 

 search of other shores as wealthy as ours. Indeed, we must 

 remember that amber, so much valued in ancient times, 

 could not have been obtained from any nearer source than 

 the coast of the German Ocean. 



M. Morlot thinks that he has found traces of the Phoeni- 

 cians even in America, while Professor Nilsson has attempted, 

 as already mentioned, to show that they had settlements far 

 up on the northern shores of Norway. M. Morlot relies on 

 some antiquities, and particularly on certain glass beads, 

 found in American tumuli ; these, however, in the opinion 

 of Mr. Franks, may be mediaeval, and of Venetian origin. 

 Professor Nilsson's arguments may be reduced to seven, 



