range of mountains intersecting the whole
of Asia.

Then the famous librarian drew a map of the world for his library at
Alexandria, but it has perished with all the rest of the valuable
treasure collected in this once celebrated city. We know that he must
have made a great many mistakes in drawing a map of his little island
world which measured eight thousand miles by three thousand eight
hundred miles. It must have been quaintly arranged. The Caspian Sea
was connected with a Northern Ocean, the Danube sent a tributary to
the Adriatic, there was no Bay of Biscay, the British Isles lay in
the wrong direction, Africa was not half its right size, the Ganges
flowed into the Eastern Ocean, Ceylon was a huge island stretching
east and west, while across the whole of Asia a mountain chain stretched
in one long unbroken line. And yet, with all his errors, he was nearer
the truth than men three centuries later.

CHAPTER VI

PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES

For some centuries past men had been pushing eastward, and to west,
vast lands lay unexplored, undreamt of, amongst them a little far-off
island "set in a silver sea." Pytheas was the first explorer to bring
the world news of the British Isles.

About the time that Alexander was making his way eastward through
Persia, Pytheas was leaving the Greek colony of Marseilles for the
west and north. The Phoenicians, with their headquarters at Carthage,
had complete command of the mineral trade of Spain--the Mexico of the
ancient world. They knew where to find the gold and silver from the
rivers--indeed, they said that the coast, from the Tagus to the
Pyrenees, was "stuffed with mines of gold and silver and tin." The
Greeks were now determined to see for themselves--the men of Carthage
should no longer have it all their own way. Where were these tin islands,
kept so secret by the master-mariners of the ancient world?

A committee of merchants met at Marseilles and engaged the services
of Pytheas, a great mathematician, and one who made a study of the
effect of the moon on the tides. All sorts of vague rumours had reached
the ears of Pytheas about the northern regions he was about to visit.
He would discover the homes of the tin and amber merchants, he would
find the people who lived "at the back of the north wind," he would
reach a land of perpetual sunshine, where swans sang like nightingales
and life was one unending banquet.

So Pytheas, the mathematician of Marsei