GUILD OF CARTOGRAPHERS & NAVIGATORS

"Describe a historical trade route"

by Far-Bjorn

I hav not been on this route myself, but I hav heard about it from other bears who hav been with the Norse traders.

You need a boat.

If you start off in Norway, you have to sail round past Denmark and up into the Baltick Sea, and you sail up until you come to a bit of sea that points East (the way the Sun rises) just below a land called Finland. If you sail down there, you come to a big river, that turns South. You sail up this river (or row, if the wind isn't in the right direction) almost as far as you can. Then there is a big marsh round which fishermen live. You can trade with them, but the better trade is by pushing your boat through the marsh to the other side, where a little river goes on South. The march is very big, and it is best to do this at the rainy season, as otherwise you may not find the other river. Then you follow that river (the small one) south and it joins more and more and more rivers and finally it comes out into a big lake or sea. You have to sail South-West, then and where the Sea goes through a narrow bit there is a city, called Middle of the Earth. There, there are rich people who will buy what you have, and who will sell you all sorts of exotic things to take home with you.

I hav heard that in that city there are men who say that they have travelled a long way East, where there are no seas, and they say that there is another trade route there, but I don't know of any bears that hav been that way. Or Norsemen.