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Discovery and adventure in the polar seas and regions Author:John Leslie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Ancient Voyages to the A'ortlt. Voyage of Pytheas—Norwegian Expeditions ; Ohthere—Colo- nization of Iceland—The Zeni—Qnirini. The voyages to... more » the North, undertaken prior to the CHAP.Til great era of maritime enterprise and the invention of Ancient the compass, were few in number, and scarcely extended into those circumpolar regions which form the special subject of the present volume. It will be enough, therefore, to take a rapid sketch of the steps by which discovery proceeded towards those remote and almost inaccessible quarters. The Mediterranean, the shores of which constituted the first civilized portion of the West, was the quarter maritime where European navigation originated. As Tyre, situ- ore"' ated in the depth of that sea, was the earliest seat of commerce, Carthage, the daughter of Tyre, was doubtless the first state which undertook any extensive discoveries upon the ocean. These, however, were shrouded in deep mystery, prompted by the jealous and monopolizing temper of this people, once so powerful and opulent. The classic writers give only some slight and detached notices of the voyage of Himilco, who appears to have nimlljo. sailed along the exU'rior coasts of Spain and France, and to have reached the southern extremity of Britain. This, it is probable, was only the first of a series of voyages carried on with the view of procuring tin,— a metal rare and highly valued in those days. The Cas- Mterides, or Tin-islands, which appear to be Cornwrll Chap. ill. and the Scilly Isles combined together, were celebrated — among the primitive authors of Europe. Pjthcu. The meat distinguished of the Greek navigators who penetrated into the North was Pytheas, a citizen of Marseilles, a Greek colony, which, favoured by its situation, had become th...« less