This, however, is absolutely at variance
with the fact, that he took his departure from the northernmost point of
Britain, and would in fact bring him back from it to the entrance of the
Frith of Forth.
It is supposed, however, that this is the real latitude;
but that the west coast of Jutland is the country at which he arrived. But
this obliges us to believe that his course from the northern extremity of
Britain, instead of being north or north-east, or indeed at all to the
north, was in fact south-west; a supposition which cannot be admitted,
unless we imagine that the ancients were totally ignorant of the course
which they steered. On the other hand, Pytheas' description of the
productions of Thule agrees with Jutland; the culture of millet in the
north, and of wheat in the south, and the abundance of honey: there is
also, about a degree to the north of the latitude of 55 deg. 34', a part of the
coast still denominated Thyland; and in the ancient language of
Scandinavia, Thiuland. The account of Pytheas, that near Thule, the sea,
air, and earth, seemed to be confounded in one element, is supposed by
Malte Brun to allude to the sandy downs of Jutland, whose hills shift with
the wind; the marshes, covered with a crust of sand, concealing from the
traveller the gulf beneath, and the fogs of a peculiarly dense nature which
frequently occur. We must confess, however, that the course having been
north, or north-east, or north-west, for this latitude of course may be
allowed in consideration of the ignorance or want of accuracy of the
ancients, never can have brought Pytheas to a country lying to the
south-west of the extremity of Britain.
We are not assisted in finding out the truth, if, instead of founding our
calculations and conjectures on the distance sailed in the six days, we
take for their basis the distance which Pytheas states Thule to be from the
equator. This distance, we have already mentioned, was 46,300 stadia;
which, according as the different kinds of stadia are calculated upon, will
give respectively the latitude of the south of Greenland, of the north of
Iceland, or of the west coast of Jutland; or, in other words, the limit of
Pytheas' voyage will be determined to be in the same latitude, whether we
ascertain it by the average length of the day and night's sail of the
vessels of the ancients, or by the distance from the equator which he
assigns to Thule. It may be proper to state, that there is a district on
the coast of Norway, between the latitudes of 60 deg. and 62 deg., called Thele, or
Thelemarle. Ptolemy supposes this to have been the Thule of Pytheas, Pliny
places it within three degrees of the pole, Eratosthenes under the polar
circle. The Thule discovered by Agricola, and described by Tacitus, is
evidently either the Orkney or the Shetland Islands.
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