Note 22 — Chapter X · THE HYPERBOREANS.

This legendary race was said to dwell in the regions beyond Boreas, or the northern wind, which issued from the Riphæn mountains, the name of which was derived from ριπαὶ or “hurricanes” issuing from a cavern, and which these heights warded off from the Hyperboreans and sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the northern blasts, and enjoyed a life of supreme happiness and undisturbed repose. “Here,” says Humboldt, “are the first views of a natural science which explains the distribution of heat and the difference of climates by local causes—by the direction of the winds—the proximity of the sun, and the action of a moist or saline principle.”