[ I2 5 3 
“ we have nothing of this nature with regard to te- 
“ lefcopes.” 
The reafon of my enlarging upon this article is a 
palTage I have lately met in that learned antiquary, 
Mr. Rowland, which may feem to contradict the 
obfervation produced above. This * author alleges 
the authority of Hecatsus (apud Diod. Sic. tom. i. 
p. 159. Ed. Weflel.) for faying, that the Hyperborei, 
who inhabited an illand in the Northern ocean, op- 
pofite to the Celts, “ could (as if they had the ufe 
“ of telefcopes) fhow the moon very near them, and 
“ difcover therein mountains, and heaps of rocks, 
“ which that indrument only can difcover.” That 
we may didinguifh how far Hecatsus is concerned 
in this padage, it will be proper to- give a literal 
tranflation of it from the original ; viz. “ They fay 
“ further, that the moon, viewed from this illand, 
<c appears to be but at a very little didance from the 
£C earth, and to have certain protuberances, like land, 
<c vifible on her furface *f\” Now, it 'may be ob- 
ferved, in the drd place, that this- phenomenon, if 
real, may perhaps be explained by the refraCtion of 
the moon’s rays in palling through the atmofphere 
of the earth, which, in an illand lituated very far 
north, might be continually charged with an extraor- 
dinary quantity, of vapours. Or further, as Hecatsus 
mentions it upon hearfay only, and fubjoins fome 
other circumdances in the fame chapter relating to 
this idand, which are entirely of a fabulous cad, 
* Mona Antiqua, p. 76. 
+ J'i k} 7iiv 2sa mw Ik Titvrw? th? N <pcuvi£-cu irctVTiXaf 
uAiyoy dTrfXxcw rnf fif, ^ r/rctf yiuS'in iywav 
WC 
