The American Universal Geography; Or, a View of the Present State of All the Kingdoms, States and Colonies in the Known World... Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1819 edition. Excerpt: ...the northern Mount Ossa. The co. munition of the chain beyond that river, is the celebrated Oiympus, the famed residence of the gods, and the court of Jupiter. Xenagorat, in the 4th century before Christ, measured the highest summit, and found it to be 10 stadia and 1 plethrum, wauling 6 ieet, or 6135 English feet in height. Mr. Bernouillij ly his measurement, finds it to be 6501 feet. Between Ossaand Olympus, winds the valley of Te.mpe, painted by the poets as the most delightful spot on the earth, and often honored by the presence of the gods. Mount 0//tri/v, the residence of the centaurs, was a range in the south of Thessaly; and Pindus, the favorite resort of Apollo and the Muses, separated it on the west from Epyrus. farnaitua was merely the continuation of the same range, through Etolia and Phocia; while Mount Helicon was its southeastern termination, in Boeotia, near the head of the Gulf of Lepanto. Mount ttftoa, or Monte Sancto, is on a peninsula, in Macedonia, having the gulf of Contessa, or Orfana, on the N E. and the Gulf of Monte Sancto on the S. V. It consists of a chain of eminences, 7 or 8 leagues long, and 3 or 4 broad, the loftiest of which is said to exceed two miles in height; and Plutarch and Pliny assert that it projected its shadow, at the summer solstice, on the market place of Myrina, the capital of the island ot Lemnos. The cold on its summit is extreme, yet it abounds with many kinds of plants and trees, particularly the pine and the fir, and supplies a multitude of springs and streams. It is now inhabited by the Caloyers, a sort of Greek monks, of the order of St. Basil, who never marry, and live chiefly on olives. They are about 6000 in number, and have 34 monasteries on the mountain, raised to the height of S...