* The fact that they worked the mines of Thasos is attested by Herodotus.
** Pronektos, on the Gulf of Ascania, was supposed to be a Phoenician colony.
Beyond the calm waters of the Propontis, they encountered an obstacle to their progress in another narrow channel, having more the character of a wide river than of a strait; it was with difficulty that they could make their way against the violence of its current, which either tended to drive their vessels on shore, or to dash them against the reefs which hampered the navigation of the channel. When, however, they succeeded in making the passage safely, they found themselves upon a vast and stormy sea, whose wooded shores extended east and west as far as eye could reach.
[Illustration: 299.jpg ONE OF THE DAGGERS DISCOVERED AT MYCENÆ, SHOWING AN IMITATION OF EGYPTIAN DECORATION]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile in Perrot-Chipiez.
From the tribes who inhabited them, and who acted as intermediaries, the Phoenician traders were able to procure tin, lead, amber, Caucasian gold, bronze, and iron, all products of the extreme north--a region which always seemed,to elude their persevering efforts to discover it. We cannot determine the furthest limits reached by the Phoenician traders, since they were wont to designate the distant countries and nations with which they traded by the vague appellations of Isles of the Sea and Peoples of the Sea, refusing to give more accurate information either from jealousy or from a desire to hide from other nations the sources of their wealth.