The Ionians of Phocaea and Massilia had been trained as mariners and students for generations, alike in the mother city and in the colony, and all their admirable qualities seem to culminate in the life work of Pytheas. His learning and his discoveries form the fitting crown of their history. Pytheas was a geographer and an explorer in the highest sense. For he must have devoted long years to qualify himself for his great task, and his attainments placed him in the first rank of nautical astronomers before he undertook his voyages into the unknown ocean. CHAPTER V FIRST CROSSING OF THE THRESHOLD There is one part of the Arctic and Sub-arctic regions, and one only, where a country retaining the warmth and the adaptability of the temperate zone as an abode for civilised man extends far beyond the Arctic Circle, and, as it were, connects the vast tracts of ice and snow with the habitable earth. This is the Scandinavian peninsula. It stretches northwards to 71° 10′ N., maintaining a temperature throughout its length which renders it fit for the abode of a race of men who have been leaders in progress and civilisation. This remarkable phenomenon is due to the flow of warm water from the Atlantic, which passes northward along the coast of Norway. The Atlantic current has the effect of ameliorating a climate which would otherwise be of Arctic severity, while at the same time it keeps off and checks the polar icebergs in their southerly drift, so that ice is never seen on the northern shores of Finmarken. Reclus has very truly said that this current has played a chief part in the modern history of mankind. The Norsemen appear to have arrived in the Scandinavian peninsula, and superseded the Finnish tribes, a century or two before the Christian era. The physical geography of the region moulded the thoughts and lives of the new-comers. With a noble foundation to build upon, their character was evolved by their environment. The stormy seas and impenetrable fogs, the glories of the fjords with their mighty cliffs and glittering cascades, the valleys and lakes, the dense forests and mysterious ice fjells--all were made to form settings for the long array of fancies created by the glowing enthusiasm of the Norsemen.