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.

It may appear presumptuous as well as useless, after this display of the difficulties attending the question, to offer any new conjecture; and many of our renders may deem it a point of very minor importance, and already discussed at too great length.  It is obvious, from the detail into which we have entered, that no country exists in the latitude which must be assigned to it, whether we fix that latitude by Pytheas’ statement of the distance of Thule from the equator, or by the space sailed over in six days, the productions