156 THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS. [CHAP. inhabited this district of Armorica he calls the Ostimii, and these are evidently the same as the Osismii of Caesar and " Strabo. He mentions also the headland of Cabaeon, tory(Brittany). and the ;sland Q{ Uxisama (Ushant) with the other islands in its neighbourhood ; and if, as seems probable, these are the same as the Oestryrnnides which were visited by Himilco the Carthaginian1, his interest in them and in the neighbouring main- land would be explained, as having arisen from the communication which existed between them and Britain in connexion with the tin trade. For the same reason it is natural to assign to this Part °f his ™y*3Q the visit which pytheas paid to the mining districts in the west of Britain. His account of these, which is found in Diodorus, describes the natives— who owing to their intercourse with foreigners were more civilised than the rest of the Britons— as bringing the tin, after it island of ictis ^ad been smelted, to an island off the neighbour- (st Michael's ing coast, called Ictis, which was their commercial Mount)" station. This, we are told, was connected with the mainland by an isthmus, which, though at other times covered with water, was dry at low tide, and allowed of the freight being carried across in waggons. There can be little doubt that the place which is here meant is St Michael's Mount*. With Britain and its inhabitants Pytheas became familiarly acquainted. He describes it as an island of tri- angular form, and distinguishes the three angles by the names of the three promontories which formed them— viz. to the north Orcas, to the south-west Belerion, the Land's End, and to the south-east Cantion, the North Foreland, near which point, he remarks, is the outlet of the sea, /.