[7] These are the Acmodæ of Pliny (iv. 30), which can only be the Shetlands. Salmasius identifies the Acmodæ, Hæmodæ, and Hebrides. Camden makes them different, and refers the Acmodæ to the Baltic. Parisot informs us that off the West Cape of Skye and the isle of North Uist (the nearest of the Hebrides to the Shetlands) there is a great gulf, which, being full of islands, is still called Mamaddy or Maddy—hence, possibly, the Greek Άι Μαδδάι, and the Latin Memodæ. According to Dr Charnock, the name in Keltic may be translated the “black head or hill,” or the “hill of God.”
[8] Mela’s “Scandinovia” is one of six islands which are described rather as parts of a great peninsula than as regular “insulæ.” Amongst their Sarmatian population are the Oænæ (egg-eaters), the Hippopodæ (horse-feet), and the Panoti (all-ears), whose existence is attested by credible travellers (Cf. p. 165, Geografia di Pomponio Mela, by Giovanni Francesco Muratori, Torino, Stamperia Reale, 1855).
[9] Camden suggests that “Belcarum” was a clerical error for “Bergarum.” But Mela places Bergæ on the confines of Scythia and Asia, and he joins the Caspian with the Northern Ocean (iii. 5).
[10] To understand the full significance of this sentence, we must consult the context. The first “additional parallel,” whose longest day was sixteen hours, ran through “the Daci and part of Germany, and the Gallic provinces, as far as the shores of the ocean.” The second traversed “the country of the Hyperborei and the island of Britannia, the longest day being seventeen hours in length.” The third is far more applicable to Iceland than to the Shetland or Færoe groups.
[11] C. Ptolemæi Geographia, edidit Carolus Fredericus Augustus Nobbe, Lipsiæ, 1843. A correct text.
[12] C. Ptolemæi, etc., libri octo, ex Bilibaldi Pirckeymheri translatione, Lugduni, 1535. When may geographical students hope to see a portable English translation of Ptolemy, and be saved the mortification of carrying about this uncomfortable folio? The work was proposed many years ago to the Royal Geographical Society, and was rejected, I believe, on the grounds of Ptolemy being a mathematical writer. The paragraphs in the text refer to the Greek, the pages to the Latin translation.
[13] Ptolemy assumes the southernmost part of the old world to be in S. lat. 16° 20´ instead of S. lat. 34° 51´ 12´´ (Cape Agulhas). Already in 1800, G. G. Bredow (loc. cit.), recognising the imperfect graduation, had reduced Ptolemy’s N. lat. 57° to N. lat. 51° 15´, and N. lat. 62° to N. lat. 55° 15´.
[14] Lemprière and other popular books, contain the following curious assertion: “Ptolemy places the middle of his Thule in 63° of latitude, and says that at the time of the equinoxes, the days were twenty-four hours, which could not have been true at the equinoxes, but must have referred to the solstices, and therefore this island is supposed to have been in 66° latitude, that is, under the Polar circle.” La Martinière, of whom more presently (sub voce Thule), makes no such blunder. Ptolemy gives N. lat. 63° and twenty hours, in which he is followed by Agathemerus.
[15] It is suggested (Notes on Richard of Cirencester) that beginning with the Novantum Chersonesis (Mull of Galloway?), in E. long. (Ferro?) 21°, the latitudes were mistaken for the longitudes, hence Cape Orcas (Duncansby Head?) was thrown to the east, E. long. (Ferro?) 31° 20´.
[16] “On some old maps of Africa, etc.,” a valuable paper read before the British Association, August 1863: Herr Kiepert is greatly indebted to it.