38 GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOMERIC PERIOD. [CHAP.

which latter view would connect them with the Galician tin

mines : but neither of these suppositions, if it stood alone, would

account for the idea which commonly prevailed, that they lay in

the open ocean far away from land1. On the whole, the most

probable explanation, and that which agrees best with what we

know of the concealment practised by the Phoenicians in respect

of commerce, is this—that while the trade in tin continued to be

their monopoly, all that the Greeks learnt concerning its origin

was, that it was found in islands in the northern sea— by which

Britain, together with the islets off its coast, or perhaps Ireland,

were vaguely meant. This indistinct conception of the Cassi-

terides may have prevailed for many centuries ; and Herodotus,

it should be observed, who is the first writer that mentions them,

discredits their existence altogether2* At a later period, when the

nations about the Mediterranean obtained more accurate in-

formation concerning the north-western coasts of Europe, it was

natural that they should affix the name to one or other of the

groups of islands with which they found the trade to be associated5.

Thus by some writers it may have been attached to the Oestrym-

nides, by others to the islands of the Galician coast, and even

the Scillies may in some cases have been intended j while at the

same time the old fabulous notion of their remoteness from the

continent maintained its ground. It may seem at first sight to

militate against this view, that Strabo expressly tells us that the

Romans after numerous attempts discovered the way to these

islands; and that after Publius Crassus, who voyaged thither,

learnt that the mines were worked at no great depth below the

surface of the ground, and that the inhabitants were peacefully

disposed, the communication with them was facilitated4, This

would imply that they were a definite group of islands, the

position of which was clearly ascertained. There is no reason

to doubt that Crassus made such an expedition ; but whatever

the place was to which he went, his account is quite untrust-

Strabo, lot. dt.\ fr T$ tfaeayy, Diodor* 5. 38, 4; to r$ dvruc$
, Ptol., loc. tit.
2 Herod. 3. 115.
* See Kiepert, Lekrbuch d. a. Geographic, p. 5?&
4 Strabo, 3.5. n.