41 ([return])
[ Camden supposes the Shetland Islands to be meant here by Thule; others imagine it to have been one of the Hebrides. Pliny, iv. 16, mentions Thule as the most remote of all known islands; and, by placing it but one day's sail from the Frozen Ocean, renders it probable that Iceland was intended. Procopius (Bell. Goth, ii. 15) speaks of another Thule, which must have been Norway, which many of the ancients thought to be an island. Mr. Pennant supposes that the Thule here meant was Foula, a very lofty isle, one of the most westerly of the Shetlands, which might easily be descried by the fleet.]
42 ([return])
[ As far as the meaning of this passage can be elucidated, it would appear as if the first circumnavigators of Britain, to enhance the idea of their dangers and hardships, had represented the Northern sea as in such a thickened half solid state, that the oars could scarcely be worked, or the water agitated by winds. Tacitus, however, rather chooses to explain its stagnant condition from the want of winds, and the difficulty of moving so great a body of waters. But the fact, taken either way, is erroneous; as this sea is never observed frozen, and is remarkably stormy and tempestuous.—Aiken.]
43 ([return])
[ The great number of firths and inlets of the sea, which almost cut through the northern parts of the island, as well as the height of the tides on the coast, render this observation peculiarly proper.]
44 ([return])
[ Caesar mentions that the interior inhabitants of Britain were supposed to have originated in the island itself. (Bell. Gall. v. 12.)]
45 ([return])
[ Caledonia, now Scotland, was at that time overspread by vast forests. Thus Pliny, iv. 16, speaking of Britain, says, that "for thirty years past the Roman arms had not extended the knowledge of the island beyond the Caledonian forest.">[