This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... sea, and to a dark region, within which, nevertheless, are situated the " Fortunate Islands," wherein, from the beginning of life on earth, bubbles the " Fountain of Life."t The legend asserts, moreover, that a portion of the first " dry island" (continent), having detached itself from the main body, has remained, since then, beyond the Mountains of Koh-Kaf, " the stony Mergain, or Morgana, the fairy sister of King Arthur, is thus shown of Oriental descent. + Where we find her, indeed, in Great Britain, in the romance of the Knights of the Round Table. Whence the identity of name and fairy-hood, if both heroines did not symbolize the same historical event which passed into a legend? J Herbelot, p. 593; Armenian Tales, p. 35. THE AKCTIC CONTINENT. 417 girdle that surrounds the world." A journey of seven months' duration will bring him who is possessed of "Soliman's Ring" to that " Fountain," if he keep on journeying North, straight before him as the bird flies. Journeying, therefore, from Persia straight North, will bring one along the sixtieth degree of longitude, holding to the West, to Nova Zembla; and from the Caucasus to the eternal ice beyond the Arctic Circle would land one between the sixtieth and forty-fifth degrees of longitude, or between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. This, of course, if one has the dodecapodian Horse of Huschenk or the winged Simorgh of Tahmurath, or Taimuraz, upon which to cross over the Arctic Ocean. Nevertheless, the wandering songsters of Persia and the Caucasus will maintain, to this day, that far beyond the snow-capped summits of Kap, or Caucasus, there is a great continent now concealed from all; that it is reached by those who can secure the services of the twelve-legged progeny of the crocodile and the female...