GEOGRAPHY. 
Fngland to Ireland is from Holyhead in this ifland; 
from whence packets fail regularly for Dublin. 
Scotland, tlie northern divifioij of Great Britain, 
is inhabited by a valiant, hardy, indiidrious, well-in¬ 
formed, and temperate, race of people. It is divided 
into thirtv-three fliires or counties, viz. i. Orkney, in¬ 
cluding Shetland. 2. Caithnefs. 3. Sutherland, in¬ 
cluding Strathnaver. 4. Rofs. 5. Invernefs. 6. Cro- 
iiiartie. 7. Nairn. 8. Elgin, including Murray. 9. 
BamfF, lO. Aberdeen. ii. Kincardin, or Mearns. 
12. Forfar, including Angus. 13. Perth. 14. Fife. 
15. Kinrofs. 16. Clacmanan. 17. Stirling, 18. Dum¬ 
barton. 19, Argyle. 20. Bute. 21. Renfrew, 22. 
Lanerk, or Clydefdale. 23. Air. 24. Kircudbright, 
or Eaft Galloway. 25. Wigton, or Weft Galloway. 
26. Dumfries. 27. Peebles, or Tweedale. 28. Sel¬ 
kirk, 29. Roxborough. 30. Mcrfe, or Berwick. 
31. Haddington, or Eaft Lothian. 32. Linlithgow, or 
Weft Lothian, 33. Edinburgh, or Mid Lothian. 
The moft confiderable mountains in Scotland are the 
Grampian, Pentland, Lammermuir, Tiviot, Ben Nevis, 
Ben Lomond, aud Fergus. 
The inoft confiderable towns in Scotland are Edin¬ 
burgh, Glafgow, and Aberdeen, famous for their uni. 
verfities : Glafgow is no lefs fo for its extenfive com¬ 
merce, Berwick-upon-Tweed lies between England 
and Scotland, and is diftinguiftted from both, by having 
its own peculiar privileges, and a fmall territory within 
its jurifdidion. 
The iflands belonging to Scotland are the Shetland, 
the Orkney, and the Hebrides, or Weftern Iflands.— 
The principal rivers are the Forth, the Tay, the Dee, 
and the Don.—The moft confiderable lakes are Loch 
Tay ; Loch Lomond, which contains feveral iflands; 
and Loch Nefs, in Invernefshire. 
Ireland, for many ages a kingdom of itfelf, is di¬ 
vided into four large provinces : viz.. Uliter northward, 
Leinfter eaftward, Munfter fouthward, and Connaught 
weftward. Thefe provinces contain the following 
thirty-two counties : 
1. Ulster comprifes the counties of Donnegal,Lon¬ 
donderry, Antrim,Tyrone, Fermenagh, Armagh, Down,. 
Monaghan, and Cavan. 
2. Leinster, comprehendsthecountiesofLouth,Eaft 
Meath,Weft Meath, Longford, Dublin, Kildare, King’s 
County, Queen’s County, Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford, 
and Kilkenny. 
3. Munster, contains the counties of Clare, Lime, 
rick, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary. 
4. Connaught, includes the counties of Leitrim, 
Rofcommon, Mayo, Sligo, and Galway. 
The chief towns are Dublin, the capital; Cork, Lon¬ 
donderry, and Belfaft. Cork ii a flouriihing commer¬ 
cial city, and remarkable for its fine harbour.—The 
principal rivers are the Shannon, the Blackwater, the 
Boyne, and the Lift'y. 
Before the union with Great Britain, the government 
was vefted in a houfe of peers, and a houfe of commons, 
conlifting in the whole ol three hundred members. The 
king ftill continues to be reprefented by a viceroy fent 
Trom England. The commons of Ireland are now re- 
prefented by a hundred members in the Britifli parlia¬ 
ment I the lay lords, by twenty-eight peers, and the 
fpiritual, by one archbifliop and three bilbops. 
See particulars at large of all thefe European ftates, 
with corretl maps of the fame, under their proper titles 
in this Encyclopaedia. 
ASIA. 
This divifion of the earth extends, in length, from 
the Hellefpont to wdiat is called the Eaft Cape ; or 
.^from about the 26th degree of longitude eaft from 
Greenwich or London, into the other hemifphere to 
near 190° of, eaft; longitude, or 170° weft from London ; 
fceing no lefs than j 64°, or (taking the degree at a me¬ 
dial latitude) more than 6500 geographical miles 
From the fouthern cape of Malacca to the cape of 
Cevero Voftochnoi, which bounds the Icy or Ariftic 
ocean, the breadth extends from about 2° of northern 
latitude to about 77®, or nearly 4500 geographical 
miles. If, for the fake of a comparitive calculation, 
one fixth part be added for the difference between the 
ftatute and geographical mile, the length of Afia would 
be about 7583 Britifh miles, and the breadth 5250. 
Of the real extent of Afia, the ancients entertained 
moft indiftindi: ideas ; and in faft the difcovery of the re¬ 
moter parts of this great divifion of the world may be 
faid to have commenced with the travels of Marco 
Polo, the Venetian, in the end of the thirteenth centu- 
ry; and it was not completed, with regard to the eaft. 
ern extremities, till the recent travels were publiftied 
in Ruftia, and the voyages of Beering, Cook, and La 
Peroufe. It is now well known that Alla is limited, on 
the eaft, by aftrait which divides it from America ; and 
which in honour of the difcoverer is called Beering’s 
ftrait. The northern and fouthern boundaries are tlie 
Ar6lic and Indian oceans, in which laft many large 
iflands, particularly that of New Holland, which forms 
part of Aujlralajia, afford a new line of boundary to this 
divifion of the globe. The weftern limits of Afia have 
Europe,. Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, 
for their boundaries. 
The population of Afia is by all authors allowed 
to be wholly primitive and original; if we except that 
of the Techuks or Tchuktchi, who, by the Ruflian tra¬ 
vellers and Mr. Tooke, are fuppofed to have pafTed 
from tlie o.ppofite coaft of America. A few colonies- 
have migrated from Ruflia to the northern parts,, as far 
as the fea of Kamtfchatka ; and there are European fet- 
tlements in Hindooflan,. and the ifles to the fouth-ealt; 
but the firft ferious attempt to colonize what is called 'x 
part of Afia, was the recent fettlement at Port Jackfon. 
With thefe triflng exceptions, Afia prefents a very ex¬ 
traordinary inftance of original population. 
The conquefts of the famous Zingis, or Genghis 
Khan, in the beginning of the tliirteenth century, firft 
opened the difcovery of the diftant parts of Alia ; tlie. 
Moguls, or Mongols, wliofe fovereign. he was,, being 
fituated to the eaft of the Huns, who had before dift'ufed 
terror over Europe. The firft feat of the Monguls was 
in the mountains which give fource to the river Onon ; 
and at a fhort diftance to tlie I'outh-weft was Kara-kum, 
or Karacum, the firft capital of the Mongul empire.. 
The victories of Zingis extended from Catliai, or the 
northern part of China, to the river Indus; and his 
fuccelTors extended them over Ruffia, w hile their in¬ 
roads reached Hungary and Germany. 'Ibis widcly- 
diffufed power of the hTor.guls naturally excited an at¬ 
tention and curiofity, never ftimulated by petty tribes ; 
and at the fame time it facilitated the progiel’s of the 
traveller, who, as in Africa, had been impeded by the 
enmities of diminutive potentates. By force of arms 
the Monguls alfo firft opened the obfeure receft'es of 
Siberia. Sheibani Khan, A. D. 1242, led 15,000 fami¬ 
lies into thofe northern regions; and Ijis defeendants 
reigned at ToboKkoy above tliree centuries Before the 
Rullian conqueft of that country. 
After the difcovery of America, and the Cape of 
Good Hope,, the maritime parts and iflands of Alia 
began to be fiiccelTively dilclofed. Yet the modern 
voyages of the Ruffian navigators, of our immortal 
Cook, and of the unfortunate La Peroufe, evince that 
much remained to be done; and concerning the interior 
of Siberia fcarcely any Iblid information arofe, till Pe¬ 
ter tlie Great, after the battle of Puhowa, fent many 
Swedifh prifouers into that region ; and Strahlenberg, 
one of the officers, publiftied an account of Siberia.. 
This knowledge has been greatly improved and iu- 
creafed by the travels of Dr. Pallas, and others. Yet our. 
knowledge of Afia is far from being perfeil,. efpecially 
in 
