ATLAS, king of Mauritania, a great astronomer, contemporary with Moses. From his taking observations of the stars on 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.

Atlas, a chain of mountains in Africa, lying between the 20th and 25th degrees 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. They are greatly celebrated by the ancients on account of their height, insomuch that the above-mentioned king, who is said to have been transformed into a mountain, was feigned to support the heavens on his shoulders. M. Desfontaines, who with the eyes of a learned botanist surveyed a great part of this system of mountains, considers it as divided into two leading chains. The southern one, adjoining the desert, is called the Great Atlas; the other, lying towards the Mediterranean, is called the Little Chain. Both run east and west in a parallel direction, and are connected together by several intermediate mountains running north and south, and containing between them both valleys and table-lands; but it is worthy of remark that the Great and Little Atlas of Ptolemy, the one of which is terminated at Cape Feluch, and the other at Cape Cautin, differ from the chains of the French traveller, being lateral branches which shoot off from the main system, to form promontories on the sea-coast. According to Dr Shaw, if we conceive a l 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 if to this prospect we add now and then a rocky precipice, having generally a miserable mud-walled village on the summit,—we shall then have a just idea of the mountains of Atlas. The observations of Shaw, however, were confined to eastern Barbary, through which alone he travelled; but Jackson, and other later observers, who saw these mountains from Morocco, describe them as rising to the height of 12,000 or 13,000 feet, and, even in this tropical climate, having their summits covered with perpetual snow.

According to Μ. Chenier, they are formed by an endless chain of lofty eminences, inhabited by a multitude of tribes, whose ferocity permits no stranger to approach. “Nothing, perhaps,” says he, “would be more interesting to the curiosity of the philosopher, or conduce more to the improvement of our knowledge in natural history, than a journey over Mount Atlas. The climate, though extremely cold in winter, is very healthy and pleasant; the valleys are well cultivated, abound in fruits, and are diversified by forests and plentiful springs, the streams of which uniting at a little distance, form considerable rivers, and lose themselves in the ocean. According to the reports of the Moors, there are many quarries of marble, granite, and other valuable stone, in these mountains.” Lead, silver, and copper, are extracted from different parts of them. It is even reported, and Mr Jackson thinks with some truth, that gold and silver might be obtained in them, but for the jealousy of the sovereigns of Morocco. There is also a copious supply of antimony, an article in extensive demand throughout the surrounding countries as a cosmetic for tinging the eyebrows; and sulphur occurs abundantly in the south-eastern tract. The inhabitants are composed of the ancient race of the Berbers or Berebbers, who have always maintained a sort of savage independence.

Atlas, in matters of literature, denotes a book of universal geography, containing maps of all the known parts of the world, or simply a collection of maps and charts.