11 



so, this is the highest mountain in Europe, and perhaps 

 in all the world : unless you except Mount Athos in 

 Macedonia; which, according to the accouut of Riccioli, 

 who measured it exactly, is 10,000 Italian paces high, 

 carrying its top above the winds and clouds ; a clear 

 proof of which is, that whatever is written there in ashes 

 or light sand, is found there, juvt as plain as at first, 

 after several months or years. 



" But is not the celebrated Mount Atlas in Africa, the 

 wonder of all ages, far higher than this!'* One who 

 saw it, and travelled all over it, is best able to answer 

 this question. lie writes thus : 



" Barbary is bounded on the south by Biledulgerid, 

 from which it is divided by Atlas, a chain of mountains, 

 but not of that extraordinary height or bigness which 

 the antieuts attributed to it. Those parts of them, 

 says Dr. Shaw, which I have seen, are rarely, if ever 

 equal to some of the- mountains on our own island, and 

 cannot any where stand in competition with either the 

 Alps or Apenines. Atlas is a number of hills, usually 

 4, 5, er 600 yards high, with an easy ascent, and groves 

 of fruit and forest trees, rising up one behind another. 

 Only here and there is seen a rocky precipice, of a 

 superior eminence.'* 



The rivers of Indus and Ganges, before they enter 

 the ocean, contain between them a large Peninsula, 

 divided in the middle by a ridge of high hills, which 

 runs from east to west, qiiite to Cape Comorin. On the 

 one side is Malabar, on the other Coromandel. On the 

 Malabar side it is summer from September till April ; a 

 clear sky, and scarce any rain. This is winter on the 

 Coromandel side, every day and night yielding abund- 

 ance of rain. So that as you cross the hiils to St. Thomas, 

 in little more than twenty leagues, you ascend the hill 

 with fair summer weather, and. descend with a stormy 

 winter. There i* a like ridge of hills b Jamaica, running 

 from east to west through the midst of the island. On 

 the south-side ^6f these there is suuijmer from November 

 to April, on the north side winter, and so 'vice versa. 



Hence it appears, that not the lessening the gravity ef 

 B 5 



