Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

Of the VVeJiern IJlands. zcg
der fnow and an everlafling v/inter *. The truth
of this fdtt refls upon the veracity of the perfon
from whom Tacitus received his information.
Ptolemy is fo particular in his ■ jcount of
Thule, as to inform us, that it hes in fixty-three
degrees N. Lat. and that the longeft day there con-
fifts of twenty-four hours f. There is no place
near the Eritirti iiles to which this, or any other
defciiption given of it, can agree better tiian to
Shetland. But after all that has been faid upon
the fubjeft, with a confiderable expence of erudi-
tion, by Sir Robert Sibbald and others, tliere is
reafon to conclude, with Strabo, the moft judi-
cious of all ancient geographers, and one of the
bed hiftorians and critics of remote times, that
the hiftory of Thule is dark, dubious and unau-
thentic I, and that every thing told by Pythias
concerning it is a fidion.
The illcs of North Britain h<1ve been divided
by fome ancient geographers into two claifes,
and by others into three. The firfl of thefe clailes
confifts of the Ebudes and Orcades. The fecond
comprehends the liemodes, OEmodes, or AEmodes^
together with the two jufl meijtioned. An exadl
defcription of places then fo little known, cannot
be expeded from thefe writers ; but their volun-
tary errors admit of no excufe.
Plutarch relates, upon the authority of one
Demetrius, v/ho feems to have been employed by
tlie Emperor Adrian to make geographical obfer-
* DIfpedta efl: et Thule, quam Iiadenus nix et hyertts abde-
bat- Vita Agric. c lO.
f Lib viii. c 2-
i Strabo, lib. iv. p. 30S.
O vations