01 



ATOLL. 



ATTICA. 



G02 



watered by the river Wad Adje-dee, or correctly Wadi-al-Jedl (the 

 River of the Kid), which receives many small rivers originating in 

 the mountains between the Zaab and the Tell, and falls into the lake 

 of Melgigg, a very extensive irregularly-shaped sheet of water in the 

 rainy season, but in the dry months a plain covered with salt, con- 

 taining many quicksands and pits. Along the banks of the Adje-dee 

 are numerous villages surrounded by plantations of palm-trees. The 

 third close valley is that of the Shatt-es-Saeda, or as it is called by 

 Carette, Lake Hodna, to the north-west of the western extremity 

 of the preceding valley. It is a plain extending for many miles 

 between two chains of rather high mountains, and according to 

 the season of the year is either covered with salt or overflowed with 

 water. Here, too, the quicksands are numerous, and occasion danger 

 to the xinwary traveller. Five considerable streams empty themselves 

 into the Shatt-es-Saeda from the mountains to the north of it ; but the 

 country surrounding this lake is nearly an entire waste, and seems to 

 be much more elevated than the Zaab. To the north-west of this is 

 the Desert of Sidi Aica. 



To the south of the valley of Zaab and the Sibhah-Melgir extends 

 a (pace which partakes of the Sahara character, but which is 

 separated from the great sandy desert commonly known as the 

 Sahara by a series, or according to M. Carette, " a vast archipelago 

 of oases, each of which displays a lively group of towns and 

 villages ; " and around each of which are plantations of date-palms and 

 other fruit-trees. This chain of oases extends according to M. 

 Carette through Tunis and Marocco, as well as Algeria. (Shaw's 

 ' Travels ' ; Jackson's ' Account of Marocco,' and ' Account of Tim- 

 buctoo and Housa'; 'Journal of the Geographical Society'; Carette's 

 'L'Alge'rie Heridionale et Septentrionale,' in the 'Exploration Scien- 

 tifique de I'Alge'rie,' published by order of the French Govern- 

 ment.) 



The name Atlat first appears in the writings of the early Greeks, 

 who were acquainted with the general fact of the existence of a 

 mountainous region in the north-west portion of the African continent. 

 But the Atlas of Herodotus (iv. 184) is rather a single mountain than 

 a mass of mountains. " It is of contracted dimensions, and circular ; 

 and said to be so high that it is not possible to see its summits, for 

 the clouds never leave them either in winter or summer : the natives 

 say this mountain is the pillar of heaven." In these western regions 

 the fables of the Greeks placed Atlas, the brother of Prometheus, 

 bearing the heavens on his shoulders. (JEsch. 'Prom.' 348.) From 

 the name of this mountain region came the name of the adjoining or 

 Atlantic Ocean. The native name of these mountains according to 

 Pliny (v. 1.) and Strabo was Duris. 



It does not appear that the ancient geographers had a very complete 

 knowledge of the Atlas ; but still the Romans probably knew more 

 about it than we yet do, having colonised many parts of the country 

 which these mountains and their branches occupy ; the accounts of 

 it in Roman writers are however very vague. As far as we can 

 collect it was only the highest and western part in the kingdom of 

 Marocco to which they applied the term Atlas ; and they do not seem 

 to have extended the name to the high lands to the east so far as we 

 now do. The consul Suetonius Paulinus, who was contemporary with 

 Pliny, wan the first Roman commander who crossed the Atlas. His 

 report of their great height agreed with all that had up to that time 

 been said of them ; he found the lower parts of the range covered 

 with thick forests of lofty trees, and the summits with deep snow in 

 the midst of summer. 



The offset (wpiiirouj) of the Greater Atlas has been described as 

 terminating at Ceuta, the Septem Frntr.x, <>r (Seven Brothers, of Pliny 

 and Strabo. The Greek geographer seems to make the Atlas 

 Mountains commence at Cotes, now Cape Spartel, and continue along 

 the Atlantic side of the continent. (Compare Strabo, p. 825 and Pliny, 

 T. i.) Pliny says that the Greeks gave the name of Ampelusia, the 

 Vine Tract, to the headland which we now call Cape Spartel. Strabo 

 gives no name to the mountain range stretching eastward and in the 

 interior from Cotes to the Syrtes ; but he describes it, together with 

 the ranges parallel to it, as inhabited first by the Maurusii, or Moors, 

 and in the interior by the Gtetuli. Humboldt (' Aspects of Nature,' 

 L 14fi, Sabine's trans.) follows Professor Ideler in asserting that the 

 Atlas of Homer and Hesiod can only be the Peak of Teneriffe ; but 

 they agree in stating that the Atlas of the Greek and Roman 

 geographers mnnt be in Northern Africa. 



ATOM., -ir A I'OM.ON, is a name given by the natives of the 

 Maldives to the detached coral formations of which their Archipelago 

 is composed. They are commonly of a circular form (the reef seldom 

 exceeding a mile in breadth), inclosing a lagoon, from fifteen to thirty 

 miles in diameter, and rise pMpcmBMlany from an unfathomable 

 dfj.Hi. They are of the same nature an the coral formations of the 

 Sontb Seas, though generally on a larger scale ; the name Atoll is 

 exclusively use<l : ret. 



ATOOI, ATOWAI, orTAUAI. [SANDWICH ISLANDS.] 



ATRA'TO, a river in South America, in the republic of New 

 Qranadn, and in the <1< I th l!io ('auca, of which latter it 



drains the northern part, called the province of Choc6. It is formed 

 by the union of three small rivers, Kio Quito, Rio Andageda, and Rio 

 Zitara, which rise in a mountain-knot a little south of 6 N. lat., and 

 soon join one another. It runs nearly straight from south to north 



for upwards of 150 miles ; its mouth is in the Bay of Choco, the most 

 southern part of the Gulf of Darien, near 8 N. lat. Traversing a 

 narrow valley, which lies between two ranges of the Andes, and for 

 two-thirds of the year is drenched by almost continual rains, the 

 Atrato brings down a greater quantity of water than would be 

 supposed from the length of its course ; and, according to the state- 

 ment of Alcedo, its mouth ia five leagues wide. Just at its entrance 

 into the sea are seventeen small islands, lying in two lines. It is 

 navigable by large vessels for a short distance from its mouth. 



The country drained by the Atrato and its affluents was discovered 

 by the Spaniards in the beginning of the 16th century. It is 

 extremely mountainous, except at the mouth of the river. The 

 mountains are covered with forests almost inaccessible, and the 

 narrow valleys on account of the almost continual moisture of the air 

 are marshy, and so frequently overflowed that the inhabitants find it 

 necessary in many places to build their houses upon trees, in order to 

 be elevated at some distance above the damp soil and the reptiles 

 engendered in the putrid waters. As the adjacent mountains contain 

 rich mines of gold, and the Atrato and all its affluents bring down 

 from them gold dust, a few Europeans have settled on the banks of 

 the river, who cause considerable quantities of gold to be collected by 

 then- slaves, by washing the sand of the rivers. The native Indians 

 too, pay the taxes imposed upon them in that metal. The mines 

 are at present not worked, and agriculture is almost entirely aban- 

 doned, though it is said that the valley contains many fertile 

 tracts. 



The Atrato River, which is alo called Darien and Choco, has 

 obtained some historical celebrity : the first European settlement on 

 the continent of America was founded not far from its mouth in 1510, 

 by Vaaco Nunez de Balboa. It was called Santa Maria el Antiqua, 

 and abandoned for Panama in 1518, on account of the insalubrity of 

 the air. 



In modern times the Atrato has acquired another sort of celebrity : 

 it has been the means by which the only existing water-communication 

 between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific has been effected. One of 

 its sources, the Rio Quito, rises near the source of the Rio Son Juan, 

 or Rio de Naonama (a tributary of the Pacific), and between thorn 

 runs a ravine called Quebreda de Raspadura. In this ravine the priest 

 of the village of Novita made his parishioners dig a little canal, 

 which is navigable during the heavy rain?, and thus the canoes of the 

 Indians carry the cacao, the most important of the agricultural 

 products of the adjacent country, from the mouth of the Rio San 

 Juan to that of the Atrato. This canal was cut in 1788. 



(Alcedo; Humboldt.) 



ATRI. [ABRUZZO.] 



ATRI, HA'TRIA PICE'NA. [Aunczzo ; ADBIA.] 



ATRIB, or ARTRIB, a village in Lower Egypt, near the eastern 

 branch of the Nile. It is the Athribis (vofdts 'ASpi/Si'rTjs) of Herodotus 

 (ii. 166). Blocks of stone which have been observed here probably 

 indicate the site of a temple, parts of which may still be buried. 



ATRIKANSKOI. [SIBERIA.] 



ATSHINSK, or ACHINSK, a very thriving town, formerly the 

 capital of the circle of that name, but at present comprised in the 

 circle of Kainsk, in the province of Tobolsk, in Siberia. It is situated 

 on the Atshin and Tshulym, the latter of which on leaving the town 

 runs in a northerly direction, until it falls into the Tshulchinsk, a 

 feeder of the Oby. It lies at a distance of about 540 miles E. by S. 

 from Tobolsk, and about 130 miles E. from Tomsk, in 56 5' N. lat., 

 90 50' E. long. Though only founded in 1782 it is important as a 

 place of transit for inland trade. Part of the traffic across the lino of 

 the Lral is brought to Atshinsk in consequence of its communication 

 with Tobolsk through the Oby and Tshulym. The soil in its vicinity 

 is fertile, usually producing thirty-fold ; husbandry is therefore the 

 principal pursuit of the inhabitants, who supply large quantities of 

 corn to the neighbouring provinces. The inhabitants consist either 

 of exiles or Tshulym Tartars. 



ATTERCLIFFE. [SHEFFIELD.] 



ATTERSEE. [Ess.] 



AT'TICA (properly 'ATTIK^, At'tite), one of the political divisions 

 of ancient Greece. The origin of the name is doubtful ; some (Strabo, 

 p. 391) have derived it from the word Acte, a term expressive of the 

 form of the coast-line. [AcTlUM.] From Acte the word Actike 

 might be regularly formed, and afterwards corrupted into Attikc. 

 But it is perhaps more likely that Att-ike contains the element Attk 

 or A Ih which we observe in the words Atth-is and Ath-ensc. 



Attica has the form of a triangle, two sides of which are washed by 

 the sea, and a third is protected by mountains. The mountain range 

 which descends from northern Greece forms a knot close upon the 

 Corinthian Gulf, at the huge mass of Cithscron, from which two chief 

 branches are given out. One takes a general south-west direction, 

 under the ancient name of the Oneian Mountains, filling up the great- 

 est part of the narrow isthmus between the north-east angle of the 

 Corinthian Gulf (here called the Alcyonian), and the Saronic Gulf; its 

 termination on the shore of the Saronic Gulf is at the Scironian rocks 

 (Kakiscala), which press so closely on the coast as to allow no road 

 between their base and the sea. (Strabo, p. 891.) The other branch, 

 which has a general eastern direction, and is called the range of Parnee, 

 separates Attica from Bcootia and the valley of the Boeotian Asopus : 



