ULTIMA THULE
The first tidings of the existence of the Arctic Regions that reached
the civilised world were due to the voyage of a Greek navigator of
great knowledge and ability. The people of the Ionian city of Phocaea
in Asia Minor, scorning to submit to Median domination, had formed a
very flourishing commercial colony at Massilia, near the mouth of the
Rhône, on the southern coast of Gaul. Strange products reached them
from unknown regions to the north, coming over great distances and
then down the river Rhône. These products included tin and amber. The
interest of the able and imaginative Greeks of Massilia was aroused,
and a strong desire was felt that the regions whence this tin and amber
came should be discovered. Fortunately the colony possessed a man
eminently fitted to conduct an exploring expedition, in the person of
Pytheas, an astronomer and mathematician. As it is alleged by Polybius
that Pytheas was in poor circumstances, it is probable that the voyage
he undertook was not his own venture, but that he was placed in command
of a government expedition. It is certain that he prepared for his
perilous enterprise with great care. He first carefully fixed his
point of departure at Massilia by erecting a large gnomon divided into
120 parts. Observing its shadow at noon of the day of the solstice he
found that its length was 42 parts of the gnomon, less one-fifth, that
is 41⅘ths to 120, or 209 to 600. This proportion gave 70° 47′ 50″ for
the altitude of the sun. The length of the longest day was 15 hours 15
minutes. The obliquity of the ecliptic was found to be 23° 51′ 15″,
which was deducted from the altitude. The complement of the result was
the latitude of the place less the semi-diameter of the sun. With the
semi-diameter added, the result is almost exactly the latitude of the
Marseilles observatory, 43° 18′ N. Such accuracy is remarkable. The
next step taken by Pytheas was to fix upon the nearest star to the
pole as a guide for steering the ship. He found that there was no star
on the pole, but that there were two very close to it. These would
have been, in those days, β Ursæ Minoris and α Draconis, and Pytheas
used one of these as his pole-star. During the voyage the latitudes
were obtained by observation of the longest days. This involved long
detentions at some of the ports.
The nearest approximation we can get to the date of the voyage of
Pytheas is the time of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle, about 330
B.C.[8]
A Grecian ship in those days was strongly built on regular principles,
with sails on the mainmast, and rowing power. A large vessel would be
150 to 170 feet long, with a tonnage of 400 to 500, much larger and
more seaworthy than the crazy little _Santa Maria_ in which, 1800 years
afterwards, Columbus discovered the New World.
Well provided with all the knowledge of his time, Pytheas weighed
anchor and began his coasting voyage by the Pillars of Hercules and
the Sacred Promontory, the western limit of the known world. The Greek
ships of the time averaged about 50 miles a day. Sailing on along the
coast, Oestrymnis (Cape Finistère) was reached, the probable farthest
point of Himilco the Carthaginian. The island of Uxisama (Ushant) is
mentioned, with an observation for the length of the longest day equal
to 49° N. Thence a direct course was shaped for Cantion (Kent) where
there was a long stay, and the island of Britain was thus discovered.
Here Pytheas made a long journey into the interior, visiting Belerion
(Cornwall) and the tin mines, and noting several details respecting the
habits and customs of the people, our remote ancestors. In those days
Britain was almost entirely in a wild state. The valleys were covered
with primeval forests, their lower parts were occupied by vast swamps,
and it was only on the downs and hill-ranges that there were _gwents_
or open clearings. Still, the people raised wheat and other cereals,
had domestic animals, iron tools and arms, wooden chariots with iron
fittings, and ornaments of bronze and gold. Pytheas must have traversed
the great forest of Anderida on his way to the tin mines, and he found
the people hospitable. They did not use open threshing-floors owing
to the rains, but threshed their corn in large barns. They stored the
corn in pits under ground, and made fermented liquor from barley, which
they used as wine. Their houses were of wood and thatch, and Pytheas
mentions the war chariots, but adds that the chiefs were generally at
peace with each other.
When Pytheas returned to his ship in some haven of Cantion he proceeded
northwards. His next observation gave 17 hours as the length of the
longest day. This would be in latitude 54° 2′ N., somewhere in the
neighbourhood of Flamborough Head. Still coasting to the north in his
great voyage of discovery, Pytheas came to a point at the northern end
of Britain which, by a similar method of finding the latitude, must
have been Tarbat Ness in Ross-shire. As he advanced towards the Arctic
Circle he found that the cultivated grains and fruits and almost all
the domesticated animals gradually disappeared. The people in the far
north were reduced to living mainly on herbs and roots. The intrepid
explorer still pressed onwards to discover the northernmost point of
the British Isles. Coasting along the shores of Caithness and the
Orkney Islands he finally arrived, conjecturally, at Unst Island, the
northernmost of the Shetland Isles. Pytheas gives the name of Orcas to
this extreme point of the British Isles, a name which in later times
was transferred to the Orkneys or Orcades.
It was at Orcas that Pytheas received information of an Arctic land
called _Thule_[9], at a distance of six days’ sail, and near the frozen
ocean. There was no night there in the summer solstice. During one
season the night was continuous, and during another it was continual
day. Pytheas does not say that _Thule_ was an island, nor that he had
been there. It was possibly the coast of Norway in the neighbourhood
of Alstenoe and the Vefsen-fjord. 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, “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[10].
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 attainments placed him in the first rank of
nautical astronomers before he undertook his voyages into the unknown
ocean.