CHAPTER IV
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.