M O U 
was tranflated to the vacant bifhopric ; in which he dif- 
tinguifhed liimfeif by the zeal with which he promoted 
the^interefts of the eftablifhed church, and the rigour with 
which he profecuted the puritans. He had not yet 
learned moderation ; but was particularly a&ive in (up- 
prefling the puritan lecturers. For the feverity of his 
conduct towards them, as well as for introducing fuper- 
lfitious innovations into the church, accufations were 
preferred againft him before the long parliament; and he 
would no doubt have felt their refentments, had he not 
been removed beyond the reach of all human power. At 
the time when he came to Norwich, he had been afflicted 
for more than a year and a half by the attacks of a quar¬ 
tan ague ; and he fuffered much from its effects while 
completing his “ Originum Ecclefiafticarum, Pars pof- 
terior,” which was publilhed in 1640, in tolio. At length 
the diforder rofe to fuch a height that it proved fatal to 
him in 1641, when he was about fixty-three years of age. 
Bifhop Mountagu was celebrated for his knowledge of 
the Greek language, as well as of ecclefiaftical antiquities 
and of the fathers ; but his fondnefs for the latter was 
carried to an extravagant length, and involved him in 
miftakes, fome of which are of a very glaring nature. 
His creed was Arminian, which he propagated with 
activity and fuccefs ; and, in church and alfo hate affairs, 
he was the imitator and affociate of archbifhop Laud. 
Speaking of the ftyle of his polemical works, Fuller fays, 
that “ his great parts w'ere attended with a tartnefs of 
writing; very {harp the nib of his pen, and much gall in 
the ink, againft fuch as oppofed him. However, fuch the 
equability of this fharpnefs of his ftyle, he was impartial 
therein ; be he ancient or modern writer, Papift or P10- 
teftant, that flood in his way, they fhould equally tafte 
thereof.” Befides the works already mentioned, he pub- 
liflied many others ; and after his death were publilhed 
from his papers, The A£ls and Monuments of the Church 
before Chrift incarnate, with a dedication to Jefus Chrift 
in Latin, 1642, folio. Biog. Britan. Fuller's Church-Hi ft. 
JSeal's Hijl. Purit. 
MOU'NTAIN, f. [ montagne , Fr.] A large hill 5 a vaft 
protuberance of the earth : 
The ark no more now floats, but feems on ground, 
Faft on the top of fome high mountain fix’d. Milton. 
From Acmon’s hands a rolling ftone there came. 
So large, it half deferv’d a mountain's name. Dryden. 
Any thing proverbially huge.—I had been drowned; a 
death that I abhor; for the water fwells a man, and what 
fhould I have been when I had been fwelled ? I fhould 
have been a mountain of mummy. Shakefpeare. 
She did corrupt frail nature with fome bribe, 
To make an envious mountain on my back. 
Where fits deformity to mock my body. ShalicJ'peare. 
In the language of common life, the more confiderable 
of thofe inequalities with which the furface of the earth 
is diverfified are generally termed mountains, while thofe 
of inferior elevation are diftinguifhed by the appellation 
of hills. It is unneceffary to point out the infufficiency 
of this popular but vague diftin&ion, for w'hich, by the 
geologifts of the prefent day, efpecially thofe of the Wer¬ 
nerian fchool, a diviiion has been fubftituted, which is 
far better adapted to the prefent advanced Hate of geog- 
nofy and phyfical geography. 
The inequalities on the furface of the earth may be 
divided into two great clafles, viz. the bottom of the fea, 
and the dry land. The dry land, with regard to its in¬ 
equalities, is divided into high land and low land; the 
former denoting an uneven tradl of land confiderably 
elevated above the level of the fea ; the latter conveying 
the idea of an extenfive country quite flat, or of incon- 
fiderable elevation above the fea, chiefly compofed of 
plains, but alfo hilly where it borders on alpine country ; 
and, if groups of mountains occur in it, thefe are always 
fmall, and occupy its central part. 
Yql. XVI. No. 1093. 
M O U 137 
High land is principally compofed of alpine, moun¬ 
tainous, and hilly, land ; here and there alfo fome plains 
occur in it. 
Alpine land is formed of groups of mountains, which 
again are compofed of mountain-chains, or connected 
feries of Angle mountains. Mountain-groups are gene¬ 
rally highelt in the middle, and each of them, in an alpine 
country, takes a particular diredlion ; they are feparated 
from each other by plains and valleys, but more fre¬ 
quently by mountainous or hilly country. Each group 
conftitutes a connected whole, both with regard to its 
bafe and its acclivity ; it is not, however, an entire mafs, 
but interfered in many places, though never quite down 
to its foot or bafe: wdiere the latter takes place, the 
mountain-group is confidered as terminated. 
Mountainous land is compofed of Angle mountains col¬ 
lected into chains, which however, not being joined to¬ 
gether by a central or high mountain chain, are never 
leen to form groups. 
Hilly land, which confifts of gentle rounded and undu¬ 
lated elevations ; it is much lower than the preceding, 
and, by means of the plains which fometimes conftitute 
a part of high land, forms a tranfition into low land. 
In confidering the various parts of w'hich alpine land 
is compofed, we obferve that a mountain-group always 
confifts of feveral mountain-chains, the higheft part of 
which, extending through the whole group without being 
interfefted, is called the high mountain-chain, or alfo the 
high middle chain, in cafes where its fituation is nearly 
in the middle of the group; from it a great number of 
inferior chains proceed under various angles, which form 
the acclivity of the group, and are called fubordinate and 
lateral chains. They vary in magnitude and extent; the 
moll confiderable, called alfo the chief mountain-chain, is 
that which, proceeding from the middle of the high 
mountain chain, reaches to the foot of the group ; the 
other chains either fhoot from the foot of the group 
towards the principal mountain-chain, but never reach 
the high mountain-chain; or they proceed from the high 
mountain-chain, without how'ever reaching the foot of 
the group. The fummit of a mountain-chain is called 
its ridge, that of the higheft chain the higheft ridge. 
The concavities in a mountain-group, w'hich generally 
run parallel with its longitudinal diredlion, or leparate 
one chain from another, are called valleys. 
Mountain-groups, with regard to their extent, are 
divided into principal groups, or fuch as are from thirty 
to forty geographical miles in length, for inllance, the 
alps of Swiflerland, and the Pyrenees; into middle- 
fized mountain-groups (Mittelgebirge), which have an 
extent of from ten to twenty geographical miles, fuch 
as the Hartz Mountains, the Riefengebirge, &e, and into 
fmall mountain-groups, which are only from two or three 
to ten geographical miles in length. With regard to 
their height, mountain-groups are called high, if their 
elevation exceed 7000 feet, as is the cafe with the Andes 
in South America, and the Alps of Swiflerland, Savoy, 
Tyrol, and the Pyrenees in Europe. They are of a mid¬ 
dle height, if their ridge is elevated from 3500 to 7000 
feet above the level of the fea; fuch as feveral mountain- 
groups ofBohemia,Franconia,&c. Low mountain-groups 
are from 700 to 2500 feet high. Generally the length of 
a mountain-group is proportionate to its height, and to 
the breadth of its bafe. If the length and the breadth of 
the bafe be nearly alike, the mountain-group is called 
maffive; if, on the other hand, the length is very'con¬ 
fiderable in comparifon of the breadth of the bafe, it is 
denominated a long mountain-group. 
Another diftinction of mountain-groups is derived 
from the difference in the form and the connexion of the 
mountains and mountain-chains of which they are com¬ 
pofed. Thus we have common, alpine, and conic, moun¬ 
tain-groups. The common mountain-groups have a mid- 
dle-fized lengthened principal mountain-chain, which 
gives out ffjorter lateral chains, and the individuaj jnaun- 
N n tains 
