term used by Kircher and others for the sinking in of large tracts of land by means of subterranean commotions, and many other accidents.

Pliny tells us, that in his time the mountain Cymotus, with the town of Curites, which stood on its side, were wholly absorbed into the earth, so that not the least trace of either remained; and he records the like fate of the city of Tantalis in Magnesia, and after it of the mountain Syphilus, both thus absorbed by a violent opening of the earth. Galanis and Gamales, towns once famous in Phoenicia, are recorded to have met the same fate; and the vast promontory, called Phegium, in Ethiopia, after a violent earthquake in the night-time, was not to be seen in the morning, the whole having disappeared, and the earth closed over it. These and many other histories, attested by the authors of greatest credit among the ancients, abundantly prove the fact in the earlier ages; and there have not been wanting too many instances of more modern date. (Kircher's Mund. Subter. p. 77.)

Picus, a lofty mountain in one of the Molucca isles, which was seen at a great distance, and served as a landmark to sailors, was entirely destroyed by an earthquake; and its place is now occupied by a lake, the shores of which correspond exactly to the base of the mountain. In 1556, a similar accident happened in China. A whole province of the mountainous part of the country, with all the inhabitants, sunk in a moment, and was totally (wallowed up): The space which was formerly land is also covered with an extensive lake of water. And, during the earthquakes which prevailed in the kingdom of Chili, in the year 1646, several whole mountains of the Andes sunk and disappeared.

Absorus, Apsorus, Absyrtis, Absyrtides, Apsyrtides, Apsyrtis, and Absyrium, (Strabo, Mela, Ptolemy); islands in the Adriatic, in the gulf of Carnero; so called from Absyrtus, Medea's brother, there slain. They are either one island, or two separated by a narrow channel, and joined by a bridge; and are now called Cherfo and Ofero.

Absteinen, in Geography, a district near the river Memel in Little Lithuania. It is a mountainous country, but is fertile in grain, and abounds with sheep and excellent horses.