king of Mauritania, is supposed to have been contemporary with Moses. From his taking observations of the stars on a mountain top, the poets represented him as turned into the mountain which bore his name, and sustaining 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 good account of Atlas, under his different aspects, may be found in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. i.

a celebrated but little known mountain chain of Northern Africa, between the great desert of Sahara and the Mediterranean. Geographers differ as to the extent of this range, some considering it to extend from Cape Ghir on the Atlantic to Cape Bon, the north-east point of Tunis; while others, under that name, include the whole mountain system between Cape Nun and the greater Syrtes. In this latter sense it forms the mountain-land of the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli. It is composed of ranges and groups of mountains, inclosing well-watered and fertile valleys and plains, and having a general direction from W. to E. The highest peaks are supposed to attain an elevation of nearly 15,000 feet; and although none of them reach the height of perpetual snow, some of their loftiest summits are covered with snow during the greatest part of the year. Mount Miltsin, 27 miles S.E. of the city of Morocco, was ascertained by Captain Washington to be 11,400 feet high. The greatest heights are in Morocco, from which point they appear to diminish in elevation as they extend towards the E. These mountains, except the loftier summits, are, for the most part, covered with thick forests of pine, oak, cork, white poplar, wild olive, and other trees. The inferior ranges seem to be principally composed of secondary limestone, which, at a greater elevation, is succeeded by micaceous schist and quartz-rock; and the higher chains are said to consist of granite, gneiss, mica-slate and clay-slate. The secondary and tertiary formations are frequently disturbed and upraised by trap-rocks of comparatively modern date. Lead, iron, copper, antimony, and sulphur, occur frequently here; and in the Morocco portion of the range, mines of gold and silver are said to exist. In the Algerian division are mines of copper, lead, silver, and antimony.

in Literature, a collection of maps, charts, or other tables; so called from the fabulous king of that name, who is sometimes represented as supporting the world on his shoulders. The term was first used in this sense by the celebrated geographer Mercator, in the sixteenth century.

in Anatomy, the first or uppermost vertebra in the neck, so called from its supporting the head. See Anatomy.

a kind of Eastern silk.