king of Mauritania, a great astronomer, contemporary with Moses. From his taking observations of the stars from a mountain, the poets feigned him to have been turned into a mountain, and to sustain the heavens on his shoulders. Being an excellent astronomer, and the first who taught the doctrine of the sphere, they tell us that his daughters were turned into stars; seven of them forming the Pleiades, and other seven the Hyades.

a chain of mountains in Africa, lying between the 20th and 25th degree of north latitude, and supposed almost to divide the continent from east to west*. They are said to have derived their name* from Atlas king of Mauritania, who was a great astronomer. They are greatly celebrated by the ancients on account of their height, insomuch that the abovementioned king, who is said to have been transformed into a mountain, was feigned to bear up the heavens on his shoulders. We are assured, however, by Dr Shaw, that the part of this chain of mountains which fell under his observation, could not stand in competition either with the Alps or Apennines. He tells us, that if we conceive a number of hills, usually of the perpendicular height of 400, 500, or 600 yards, with an easy ascent, and several groves of fruit or forest trees, rising up in a succession of ranges above one another; and that if to this prospect we add now and then a rocky precipice, and on the summit of each imagine a miserable mud-walled village; we shall then have a just idea of the mountains of Atlas.

matters of literature, denotes a book of universal geography, containing maps of all the known parts of the world.

commerce, a silk-satin, manufactured in the East Indies. There are some plain, some striped, and some flowered, the flowers of which are either gold or only silk. There are atlas of all colours; but most of them false, especially the red and the crimson. The manufacture of them is admirable; the gold and silk being worked together after such a manner as no workmen in Europe can imitate; yet they are very far from having that fine gloss and lustre which the French know how to give to their silk stuffs. In the Chinese manufactures of this sort, they gild paper on one side with leaf-gold; then cut it in long slips, and weave it into their silks; which makes them, with very little coil, look very rich and fine. The same long slips are twisted or turned about silk-threads, so artificially, as to look finer than gold thread, though it be of no great value.