[16]According to the most approved modern chronology, the middle of the 109th olympiad corresponds to the 211th year of the City, or 542 B.C. [17]Nothing is known respecting the nature of these instruments. [18]This is said by Livy to have occurred to Servius Tullius while he was a child; lib. i. cap. 39; and by Virgil to Ascanius, Æn. ii. 632-5. [19]By adding its deified emperors to the number of its divinities. [20]Probably these mountains were a western branch of the Ural chain. [21]From the Greek πτεροφορὸς, “wing-bearing” or “feather-bearing.” [22]This legendary race was said to dwell in the regions beyond Boreas, or the northern wind, which issued from the Riphæn mountains, the name of which was derived from ριπαὶ or “hurricanes” issuing from a cavern, and which these heights warded off from the Hyperboreans and sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the northern blasts, and enjoyed a life of supreme happiness and undisturbed repose. “Here,” says Humboldt, “are the first views of a natural science which explains the distribution of heat and the difference of climates by local causes—by the direction of the winds—the proximity of the sun, and the action of a moist or saline principle.” [23]Pindar says, in the “Pythia,” x. 56, “The Muse is no stranger to their manners. The dances of girls and the sweet melody of the lyre and pipe resound on every side, and wreathing their locks with the glistening bay, they feast joyously. For this sacred race there is no doom of sickness or of disease; but they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the exacting Nemesis.” [24]Pomponius Mela, who asserts that the sun rises here at the vernal and sets at the autumnal equinox, is right in his position, and Pliny is incorrect. [25]Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers as superior to all other islands in the world. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, says, “that no other islands whatsoever can claim equality with those of Britain.” [26]Said to have been so called from the whiteness of its cliffs opposite the coast of Gaul. [27]The distance here given by Pliny is far too great, the shortest distance, from Dover to Calais, being 21 miles. [28]Probably the Grampian range is here referred to. [29]The people of South Wales. [30]The Orkney Islands. [31]Probably the islands now known as the Shetlands. [32]The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous in the extreme. The common, and apparently the best founded opinion, is that Thule is the island of Iceland.