S4 
EUROPE. 
The ancient population of Europe confided of the 
Celts in the weft and fouth ; the Fins in the north-eaft ; 
and the Laplanders, a diminutive race like the Samoieds 
of Afia, in the furtheft north, and who feent to have im¬ 
proved their original rude language by adopting, in a 
great meafure, that of their more civilized neighbours 
the Fins. Thofe ancient inhabitants, who feem to have 
been thinly fcattered, were driven towards the weft and 
north by the Scythians or Goths from Afia, whofe de- 
fcendants occupy the greater part of Europe ; by the 
Sarmatians, or Sclavonic tribes, alfo from Alia, the an- 
ceftors of the Ruftians, Poles, &c. and who were accom¬ 
panied by the Meruli, Lithuania, tiling what is now called 
the Lettic fpeech, to be found in PrulTia, Samogitia, Cour- 
1 and, and Livonia, being, according to Tooke, in his View of 
Ruliia, akin to the Sclavonic language. From Africa, 
the colony of Iberi, northern Mauretani, paffed into 
Spain at a very early period. The later acceftion of Hun¬ 
garians and Turks, from Afia, may likewife be noticed. 
But the ancient geographers have greatly erred in their 
views and knowledge of Europe. Of Scandinavia, the 
ancients only knew the fouthern part, as far as the lakes 
ofWeter and Wener. The Roman fliips explored the 
fouthern fltores of the Baltic as far as the river Rubo, or 
the weftern Dwina, and difcovered the names of feveral 
tribes along the fhores; but of tire central parts of Ger¬ 
many it is evident, from the maps of Ptolemy, that they 
had no juft ideas ; fo that the tribes which he enumerates 
may with more propriety be aftigned to the northern 
parts along the Baltic, or to the fouthern on the left 
of the Danube. The Carpathian or Sarmatian moun¬ 
tains were well known, but the line of 50 0 or 52 0 of 
north latitude, confines the ancient knowledge in the 
north-eaft. A Angularity in the ancient defcriptions has 
alfo often mifted ; for as the mountains, in the favage 
ftate of Europe, were moftly crowned with forefts, the 
fame term was ufed in feveral barbarous languages to ex- 
prefs both ; fo that the ancients often place alpine dif- 
tridls where the hand of nature had only planted forefts. 
This remark becomes elfential in the companion of an¬ 
cient and modern geography. The Riphrean mountains 
are vainly fuppoled to have been the Uralian chain, 
which were to the ancients hid in the profopndeft dark- 
nefs, inftead of a large foreft running from ealt to weft. 
The Sevo Mons of Pliny, which lie pofitively afligns to 
the north of Germany, though geographers, in diredt 
oppofition to his text, transfer it to Norway, a region 
almoft as unknown to the ancients as America, mult be 
regarded as a vaft foreft, extending to fome promontory; 
and the Venedici Montes of Ptolemy are in the like pre¬ 
dicament, for modern knowledge evinces that no fuch 
mountains exift. 
The Chriftian religion prevails throughout Europe, 
except in Turkey, where however at leaft one half of the 
inhabitants are attached to the-Greek church. Where- 
ever the Chriftian faith has penetrated, knowledge, in- 
duftry, and civilization, have been the happy refult. 
Among the barbarous tribes in the north, the progrefs 
was unhappily flow, Scandinavia remaining pagan till the 
eleventh century ; and fome Sclavonic tribes on the fouth 
of the Baltic till the thirteenth ; and it is not above a 
century ago that the Laplanders were converted by mif- 
lions from Denmark. The two grand diftimStions are 
catholics and proteftants : the former in the fouth, where 
the pafiions are more warm, and the imagination more 
delighted with fplendour ; the latter in the north, where 
the fatisfadfion of cooler judgment preponderates. This 
univerfality of the Chriftian religion lias been followed 
by another fuperlative advantage, that of conftituting all 
the ftates of Europe, as it were, into one grand fociety 
for the encouragement of the arts and fciences ; fo that 
any ufeful difcovery made in one nation, pafles to the 
relt with celerity. This fair portion of the globe is 
chiefly fituated in the temperate zone; where freedom 
from the exceflive heats of Afia and Africa has contri¬ 
buted to the vigour of the frame, and tire energy of the 
mind. 
In a general view of Europe, one of the mod intereft- 
ing features is the number ana- extent of the inland feas, 
juftly regarded as chief caufes of the extenlive induftry 
and civilization, and confequent faperiority to the other 
grand divifions of the globe. Among thefe inland feas 
the Mediterranean is juftly pre-eminent, having been the 
centre of civilization both to ancient and.modern Eu¬ 
rope. The columns of Hercules marked its weftern 
boundary, being the mountain or rock of Abyla, now 
called Ceuta ; and Kalpe in Spain, now tiie celebrated 
rock of Gibraltar. On its northern fide'open two im- 
menfe gulphs, that of Venice and the Archipelago; the 
former being the Adriatic, the latter the Egean Sea, of 
the ancients: From this laft, a ftreight, called tire Hel- 
lefpont, conduits to the fea of Marmora the claftical 
Propontis ; and another, now ftyled the ftreight of Con- 
ftantinople, the ancient Thracian Bofphorus, leads to 
the Euxine, or Black Sea ; which, to the north, pre- 
fents the Palus Masotis, or fea of Azof, the utmoft ma¬ 
ritime limit of Europe in that quarter. This wide cx- 
panfe of the Mediterranean is beautifully fprinkled with 
iftands, and environed with opulent coafts, abounding 
with the raoli fublime and pidlurefque features of na¬ 
ture : tides are not perceivable, except in the narrowed 
(heights; but there is a ftrong current along the Italian 
(hore, from the weft to the eaft, and towards the African 
in an oppofite direction. In the Adriatic, tire current 
runs north-weft along Dalmatia, and returns by the op- 
polite ftiore of Italy. The fecond grand inland fea of 
Europe is the Baltic, by tire Germans called the Ealtern 
Sea ; whence the Eafterlings, a people from the Ihores 
of the Baltic. This extenfive inlet opens from the Ger¬ 
man Sea, by a gulf pointing north eaft, called the Skager 
Rack; and afterwards pafles fouth, in what is called the 
Cattegat, to the fouth-eaftof which is the Sound of El- 
finore, tributary to Denmark. Tire Baltic afterwards 
fpreads widely to the north-eaft, and is divided into two 
extenfive branches, called the gulfs of Bothnia and Fin¬ 
land, both covered with ice for four or five months of 
the northern winter. Ancient hiftorians report that 
wolves have paffed on the ice from Norway to Jutland. 
The greateft depth of this fea is faid not to exceed fifty- 
fathoms. Swedifli phyfiologifts affert, that it lofes about 
four feet in extent in the courfe of a century; and that 
tire water does not contain above one-thirtieth part of 
fait, whereas other fea-water often holds a tenth : this 
frefimefs they impute to the quantity of ice; and they 
farther affert, that when the north wind blows, the wa¬ 
ters become fufficiently frefli to be employed for domeftic 
purpofes. Tides are there unknown, and the fifh few. 
The third inland fea of Europe is called tire White Sea, 
in the north of Ruftia. In the reign of Alfred it was 
known to us by the name of the Q_ven Sea; and the Ice¬ 
landic writers ftyled it the fea of Granviik, on the ftiore 
of which flood Biarmia. The White Sea contains a num¬ 
ber of (Ynall iftands ; but the accounts yet given of them 
have been brief and unfatisfadtory. 
Among the other maritime divifions may be named the 
German Sea, fo called becaufe it waters the weftern fhores 
of ancient Germany, from the Rhine to the extremity of 
Jutland. It is now (tiled the North Sea, a term probably 
adopted by us from the Dutch. It may be regarded as a 
part of the Atlantic Ocean, terminating at the (freights of 
Dover ; whence the Britifh Channel extends to the weft, 
The bay of Bifcay is another large inlet of the Atlantic. 
The Briftol Channel is rather the elluary, or wide frith, 
of the Severn. Between Great Britain and Ireland are 
St. George’s Channel on the fouth, and the Irifh Sea in 
the centre, which leads to the North Channel. That 
part of the Atlantic which pafles between Scotland and 
the extreme-range of the weftern illes, from Barra to 
Louis, has received no diliinCtive appellation, though it 
might be aptly fliled the Hebudian Channel. To the 
1 north 
