a celebrated mountain of Chalcidia in Macedonia, situated in E. Long. 26°. 20' N. Lat. 40°. 10'. The ancients entertained extravagant notions concerning its height. Mela affirmed it to be so high as to reach above the clouds; and Martianus Capellinus, that it was six miles high. It was a received opinion that the summit of Mount Athos was above the middle region of the air, and that it never rained there; because the ashes left on the altars erected near the summit were always found as they were left, dry and unscattered. But if on many accounts it was famous among the ancients, it is no less so among the moderns. The Greeks, struck with its singular situation and the venerable appearance of its towering ascent, erected so many churches, monasteries, hermitages, &c. upon it, that it became in a manner inhabited by devotees, and from thence received the name of the Holy Mountain; which name it still retains, though many of those consecrated works are now decayed. According to the accounts of modern travellers, this mountain advances into the Archipelago, being joined to the continent by an isthmus about half a league in breadth. It is about 30 miles in circumference, and its height is only 3353 feet. It may be travelled over in about three days, and may be seen 90 miles off. There is a fine prospect from the top; but, like all other high mountains, the cold on its summit is excessive. It abounds with many different kinds of plants and trees, particularly the pine and fir. In the valleys grows a plant called elegia, whose branches serve to make pens for writing. In short, this mountain is said to be adorned with variety of herbage and evergreens, a multitude of springs and streams, and woods growing near the shore, so as to be one of the most agreeable places in the world.

It is now inhabited by Caloyers, a sort of Greek monks, of the order of St Basil, who never marry, though others of that church do. They abstain from flesh, and fare very hardly, their ordinary meal being olives pickled when they are ripe. They are about 6000 in all, and inhabit 24 large old monasteries, surrounded with high walls for a defence against banditti. They are respected by the Turks, and are not idle like others; but labour in the fields, and in various mechanic arts. The researches of Professor Carlyle for some years have at length completely dissipated the expectations long indulged of finding valuable manuscripts in these monasteries.

Through this mountain, or rather through the isthmus behind it, Xerxes king of Persia is said to have