a country mentioned in Scripture, from whence Solomon received great quantities of gold in ships which he sent out for that purpose. The difficulty, however, is where to fix its situation. Some have gone in search of it to the West, others to the East Indies, and a few to the eastern coast of Africa. Mr Bruce places it in the kingdom of Sofala, on the coast of Mozambique; and he supports this hypothesis with great learning and ingenuity. It was, on the other hand, strenuously maintained by Dr Doig, a learned contributor to the third edition of this Encyclopedia, that it was situated somewhere on the western coast of Africa, and that the Tarshish of Solomon was the ancient Batica in Spain. Whether the one hypothesis or the other be the true one, it is not for us to decide. Both are plausible, and both supported by much ingenuity and erudition; but we do not think that the arguments of either writer furnish a complete confutation of those employed by the other.