r north as he could, would leave the
coast and stretch out into the open sea. Sailing on a north course, or
rather with a little inclination to the east of the north, would bring him
to the entrance of the Baltic. We have already conceived it probable that
the country he describes lay in the latitude of about 62 deg., and six days'
sail from the coast of Norfolk would bring him nearly into this latitude,
supposing he entered the Baltic. The next point relates to the productions
of the country: millet, wheat, and honey, are much more the characteristic
productions of the countries lying on the Gulf of Finland, than they are of
Jutland; and Pytheas' account of the climate also agrees better with the
climate of this part of the Baltic, than with that of Jutland.

That Pythias visited the Baltic, though perhaps the Thule he mentions did
not lie in this sea, is evident from the following extract from his
journal, given by Pliny:--"On the shores of a certain bay called
Mentonomon, live a people called Guttoni: and at the distance of a day's
voyage from them, is the island Abalus (called by Timaeus, Baltea). Upon
this the waves threw the amber, which is a coagulated matter cast up by the
sea: they use it for firing, instead of wood, and also sell it to the
neighbouring Teutones." The inhabitants on the coast of the Baltic, near
the Frish or Curish Sea (which is probably the bay Pytheas describes) are
called in the Lithuanian language, Guddai: and so late as the period of the
Crusades, the spot where amber is found was called Wittland, or Whiteland;
in Lithuanian, Baltika. From these circumstances, as well as from the name
_Baltea_ given by Timaeus to the island mentioned by Pytheas, as the place
where amber is cast up by the waves, there appears no doubt that Pytheas
was in the Baltic Sea, though his island of Thule might not be there. As
amber was in great repute, even so early as the time of Homer, who
describes it as being used to adorn the golden collars, it is highly
probable that Pytheas was induced to enter the Baltic for the purpose of
obtaining it: in what manner, or through whose means, the Greeks obtained
it in Homer's time, is not known.

After all, the question is involved in very great obscurity; and the
circumstance not the most probable, or reconcileable with a country even
not further north than Jutland is, that, in the age of Pytheas, the
inhabitants should have been so far advanced in knowledge and civilizati