Ath'os, Mount, called Monte Santo or Holy Hill by the Italians, a famous mountain in Greece, at the extremity of the peninsula of Chalcidice, on the Mgean Sea. It rises to the height of 6,346 feet above the sea. In ancient times several towns were built on the peninsula. Xerxes cut a canal through the isthmus which connects the peninsula with the mainland, to escape the dangerous passage around the promontory; traces of the canal still exist. The peninsula is celebrated as the seat of a kind of monastic republic, consisting of twenty large monasteries besides numerous hermitages and chapels. The entire number of monks is about 6,000. The whole community is governed by four presidents, one of whom is called the First Man of Athos, and a holy synod of twenty members. The monks lead an ascetic life, living on herbs, fruit and fish. They spend their time in farming, gardening, the care of bees and the manufacture of amulets, images, crucifixes and wooden articles of furniture, which they sell.
Atlanta, Ga., the capital of the state and county seat of Fulton County, through which county the Chattahoocnee River flows. It lies 170 miles west by north of Augusta and about 295 miles northwest of Savannah, both of the latter cities being on the Savannah River, Atlanta, frequently called the Gate City, is an important railroad and commercial center; it is on the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, the Atlanta & West Point and other railroads. It occupies high ground, and has a mild, equable climate. The city, which dates from about the year 1840, when for some few years it was known as Marthasville, received its charter as a city in 1847, and in 1878 it became the state capital. During the Civil War it played a prominent part as a rallying point and supply center for the Confederate armies, and as such was for several weeks in 1864 invested and finally captured by the federal army under General Sherman, the city being at the time held by the Confederate General Hood, who was compelled to evacuate it after two sanguinary battles had been fought ift the vicinity. Later in the year Sherman withdrew his army and started on his march to the sea, when the city was almost totally burned. After the close of the war Atlanta was speedily rebuilt, and in 1895—96 it was chosen as the site of the Cotton States Industrial Exposition. The new city has been substantially and attractively built and besides its civic and municipal buildings it is adorned with a handsome state capitol, together with a number of important educational institutions, including Atlanta University, Clark University, the State School of Technology, Atlanta Baptist College, two Medical Colleges and the city's elementary schools and training institutes. It has, moreover, a large and growing number of industrial establishments, including agricultural implement works, machine-shops, foundries, cotton and paper mills, tobacco factories, etc. The city has made progress since the Civil War, and is now one of the busiest and most flourishing cities of the New South. Population, 154,839.
Atlanta University. A non-sectarian institution founded in 1869 for the education of colored men and women. It is situated in Atlanta, Ga., and in 1910 had 40© students. The president is Horace Bumstead, D. D. The aims of the university are stated to be "to train talented negro youth to disseminate civilization among the untaught masses, and to educate teachers."
Atlantic City, N. J., a popular and fashionable seabathing resort on the New Jersey coast, situated sixty miles southwest of Philadelphia. On account of its salubrious climate it is both a winter and a summer resort. It has an admirable beach, and is frequented both summer and winter by thousands of people from Philadelphia, New York and from all sections of the country. Magnificent express trains, both steam and electric, are run daily between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, while trains are run direct from New York, Pittsburg, Washington and the south. The town is lighted by electricity, the principal streets are macadamized, and the electric street-car service is of the best the country affords. There are upward of eight hundred hotels and boarding-houses, some of these being the largest and best equipped on the Atlantic coast.
The board-walk along the ocean front is over five miles in length and forty-eight feet in width. There are ten large school buildings, large and convenient churches, numerous halls, magnificent ocean piers and amusement places of all descriptions. The resident population was 46,150 in 1910, and the assessed valuation of the resort over fifty million dollars.
Atlan'tic Ocean, so called either from Mt. Atlas or from the fabulous island of Atlantis, which separates the old from the new world. Its greatest width is about 5,000 miles; but between Brazil and the African coast the distance is only about i,600 miles. It is in open communication both with the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic or Southern Ocean. The average depth is between two and three miles, though in places it is twice that depth. It has been sounded in all directions, and it has been found that as a rule the bed of the ocean is a broad, gently undulating plain, though near some of the continental
