CH. IV] 
Ultima Thule 
29 
island, nor that he had been there. It was possibly the 
coast of Norway in the neighbourhood of Alstenoe and the 
Vefsen-f jord. Pytheas also received reports of the physical 
aspect of the Arctic region beyond Thule. His account 
has been turned into nonsense by Strabo, copying from 
the explorer's adverse critic Polybius. Yet even as we 
have it, the real meaning is clear enough. It is a good 
description of a fog at the edge of broken-up pack ice 
and sludge, (( which can neither be travelled over nor 
sailed through/' 
Pytheas was thus not only the discoverer of Britain, 
but the first explorer who received information respecting 
the Arctic regions. He was, as Professor Rhys has 
truly said, t( one of the most intrepid explorers the world 
has seen." To have taken five observations of the 
lengths of the longest days the voyage must have occupied 
about six years. Sailing south from Orcas, Pytheas 
returned to Cantion, and eventually to his home at 
Massilia, whence he is said to have set out on another 
expedition to examine the mouth of the Elbe, and the 
sources of amber. He lived to return once more to his 
home. 
Pytheas wrote one, if not two books to describe the 
events and results of his memorable voyages. Both are 
unfortunately lost. We only know the story from the 
extracts in Strabo and other later writers 1 . 
The Ionians of Phocaea and Massilia had been trained 
as mariners and students for generations, alike in the 
mother city and in the colony, and all their admirable 
qualities seem to culminate in the life work of Pytheas. 
His learning and his discoveries form the fitting crown of 
their history. Pytheas was a geographer and an explorer 
in the highest sense. For he must have devoted long 
years to qualify himself for his great task, and his attain- 
ments placed him in the first rank of nautical astronomers 
before he undertook his voyages into the unknown ocean. 
1 Pliny and Diodorus Siculus. 
