The Jeannette

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. CONCEPTIONS OF THE ANCIEXTS VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS DISCOVERS THULE ORIGIN OF THE NORSEMEN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT A CAREER OF PIRACY?GREENLAND AND ICELAND COLONIZED INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA. Although with the discovery and colonization of Greenland and Iceland by the Norsemen, practically...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. CONCEPTIONS OF THE ANCIEXTS VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS DISCOVERS THULE ORIGIN OF THE NORSEMEN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT A CAREER OF PIRACY?GREENLAND AND ICELAND COLONIZED INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA. Although with the discovery and colonization of Greenland and Iceland by the Norsemen, practically begins our knowledge of the Arctic seas, the secrets of the hidden North had long been a favorite theme of speculation. The fruitful imaginations of the ancients attached marvelous features to this mysterious region. It was the region of darkness, but as in the succession of events day sprung from night, so in their thought did light and its benefits emanate from the North. Here the Hindoos located the dwelling-place of their deities, where those divine beings veiled their godlike attributes in misty obscurity. Here dwelt the gods of Scandinavia; and from here they directed watchful eyes to guard and protect the interests of their worshipers. When the Aurora Borealis shed its soft light over the frosty earth, .lispelling with its radiant glory the gloom of night, then the simple minds of the people discovered in the sky the dreadful shapes of their gods, and trembled and rejoiced. Thus, too, the father of history relates how the Hyperboreans? of all the human race, the most virtuous and happy, dwelt in perpetual peace and delightful companionship with the deities, under cloudless skies, in fields clothed with perpetual verdure, where the fruitful soil yields twice- yearly harvests, its blest inhabitants attain extreme old age, and at last, when satiated with life, joyfully crown their heads with flowers, and plunge headlong from the mountain steeps into the depths of the sea. But all this belongs to tradition and song rather than to history. The happine...