364 plint's natfeal history. [Book ly. tory, while many call it the Promontory of Olisipo, from the city^ near it. This spot forms a dividing line in the land, the sea, and the heavens. Here ends one side^ of Spain ; and, when we have doubled the promontory, the front of Spain begins. (22.) On one side of it lie the North and the Grallic Ocean, on the other the "West and the Atlantic. The length of this promontory has been estimated by some persons at sixty miles, by others at ninety. A considerable number of writers estimate the distance from this spot to the Pyrenees at 1250 miles ; and, committing a manifest error, place here the nation of the Artabri, a nation that never^ was here. Per, making a slight change in the name, they have placed at this spot the Arrotrebge, whom we have previously spoken of as dwelling in front of the Celtic Promontory. Mistakes have also been made as to the more celebrated rivers. Prom the Minius, which we have previously men- tioned, according to Varro, the river ^minius^ is distant 200 miles, which others^ suppose to be situate elsewhere, and called Limsea. By the ancients it was called the " Kiver of Oblivion," and it has been made the subject of many fabulous stories. At a distance of 200 miles from the Durius is the Tagus, the Munda^ Ijii^g between them. The Tagus is famous, for its golden sands. At a distance a very curiou8 error. He mentions a promontory called Artabrum as the headland at the N. W. extremity of Spain ; the coast on the one side of it looking to the north and the Grallic Ocean, on the other to the west and the Atlantic Ocean. But he considers this promontory to be the west headland of the estuary of the Tagus^ and adds, that some called it Magnum Promontorium, or the " Great Promontory," and others OHsi- ponense, from the city of OUsipo, or Lisbon. He assigns, in fact, all the west coast of Spain, down to the mouth of the Tagus, to the north coast, and, instead of being led to detect liis error by the resemblance of name between his Artabrum Promontorium and liis Arrotrebse (the Artabri of his predecessors, Strabo and Mela), he perversely finds fault with those who had placed above the promontory Artabrum, a people of the same name who never were there. ^ On the site of which the present city of Lisbon stands. 2 See note ^^ in the preceding page. ^ See note ^^. ■* See note ^^ in the preceding page. ^ Among these is Pomponius Mela, who confounds the river Limia, mentioned in the last chapter, with the -^minius, or Agueda. ^ Now the river Mondego. ^ See B. xxxiii. c. 21.
