voyage from the extremity of Britain to Thule was of course not a coasting voyage, and as the nights in that latitude, at the season of the year when the voyage was made, were very short, (Pytheas says the night was reduced to two or three hours) we must suppose that he sailed night as well as day; and consequently, that in six days he had sailed 600 miles, either directly north or to east or west of the north, for his exact course cannot well be made out.

What country lies 600 miles to the north or the north-east of the extremity of Britain?  None exactly in this direction:  if, however, we suppose that Pytheas could not fix exactly the point of the compass which he steered, (a supposition by no means improbable, considering the ignorance of the ancients,) and that his course tended to the west of the north, 600 miles would bring him nearly to Greenland.  There were, however, other stadia besides those by which we computed the day’s sail of the ancients; and though the stadia we have taken are more generally alluded to by the ancients, yet it may be proper to ascertain what results will be produced if the other stadia are supposed to have been used in this instance.  The stadia we have already founded our calculations upon will bring us to the latitude of 69 deg. 27’:  the latitude of the southernmost point of Greenland is very nearly 70 deg..  But the description given by Pytheas of the productions of the country by no means coincides with Greenland.  At the same time, other parts of his description agree with this country; particularly when he says, that there the sea, the earth, and the air, seem to be confounded in one element.  In the south of Greenland the longest day is two months which does not coincide with Pytheas’ account; though this, as we have already pointed out, is contradictory with itself.

Let us now consider what will be the result if we suppose that a different stadia were employed:  the next in point of extent to that on which we have already founded our conjectures, (there being 700 equal to one degree of the equator) will bring him to the latitude of 66 deg. 8’; the latitude of the northernmost part of Iceland is 66 deg. 30’, coinciding with this result as nearly as possible.  The description of the climate agrees with Pytheas’ description; but not his account of the length of the day, nor of the productions of the country.  Of the third kind of stadia, 833-1/3 were equal to one degree of the equator; calculating that 1000 of these were sailed during a day and night’s voyage, Pytheas would arrive in the latitude of 55 deg. 34’, at the end of six days.  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