Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/233

 074 GAKGETICUS SINU& 4. B. 21); and other anthon aacribe to some of its tribataries crocodiles and dolphins (piSdyiiSf Sirah, XT. p. 719; Dyardenes, Cart. viiL 9). The Sanscrit name Ganga may be, as Pott has snggested, an in- tensitiye form from the root ^ to ga Platarch gives another and fitbnloos origin of its name {de Fbunm. ap. Hudson, Gwgr. Gr. Min. ii. p. 8). (Rennell, HmdoBian; Lassen, Ind. AUerth, toI. i. p. 130; Kiepert n. Lassen, KarU v. Alt Indian 1853; Pott, Etgm, Fonch. p. 86.) 2. (6 TJerrnty Ptol. m 4. § 6), the most im- portant river in the ancient island of Taprobaoe i^C€yUm still known by the name uf the MaKa- veik-Ganga, It rises in the mountains to the S. and W. of Kandp, and after flowing roaod the town parsnes a NE. ooarae, till it enters the sea bj two months, one near Trmcomahe (close to the '0(«{a iUpa of Ptolemy), and the other aboat 25 miles to the S. It appeara from modem surveys that the Trincomalee branch is now nearly dry, except in the rainy season, and that the main body of water pasMs to the sea by the sonthem branch, which is now called VirgeL (Brooke on Maha:veUe'G€utga,Jaum. IL Gtog, S. vol. iii. p. 228.) Much of the country ihrongh which this river flows is now uninhabited, but liiere are extensive remains, tanks, and ruins, indicating that it was once thickly peopled. Forbiger has conjectured with some reason that the Maka- veUk^Gunga Is the same river which Pliny calls Palaesinmndus (vi. 22. s. 24), and which he says flowed to the N. by a city of the same name, and entered the sea by three mouths ; of which the nar- towest was five, and largest fifteen, stadia wide. It is curious that the larger stream, which he calls Cydara^ is the northern or Trincomalee branch ; and from modern researches, it is proved that this was originally the principal stream, the water having heen diverted into the Ftrgel by the priests of a temple situated at the prant where the two streams iiaturally bifurcate. (Davy, Account of Ceght^ Lond. 4ta 1821 ; Bitter, Erdk. vol. vi. 24.) [V.] GANGE'TICUS SINUS (K6iros TurmnKit, Ptol. i. 13. § 4, vii. 1. § 16), the great gulf faito which the Ganges flowed, now generally called the hay or gulf of Bengal. According to Ptolemy it was usual with the mariners of his day to call it 13,000 stadia across ; whence, in order to allow for the irregularity of the course pursued, Ptolemy takes off one-third, and reduces the breadth to 8670 stadia. This is, however, more than twice the hreadth of the real bay of Bengal The lact is, Ptolemy, in common with all hLi predecessors. Hip- parchus, Polybius, Marinus of Tyre, greatly extended the degrees of longitude of this part of the world ; hence his Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and bay of Bengal are all much greater in breadth E. and W. than in length N. and S., which is just oontrary to the fact. [V.J GANGRA (Fiirypa: Kieitgareh, Kangrehy or Changeri)^ a town of Paphlagoiiia, to the south of Mount Olgasys, and at a distance of 35 miles f^m Pompeiopolis, appears to have been a princely resi- dence, for we kiiow that Morzns or Moraeus, and afterwards Deiotarus, the last king of Paphlagonia, resided there. (Strab. xii.p. 564; comp. Liv.xxxviil. 26.) Strabo, notwithstanding this, describes it as ■only '* a small town and a garrison." According to Alexander Polyhistor (op. Steph, B. s. v. Tdeyypa), the town was built by a goatherd who had fkmd one of his goats straying there; but this is probably a mere philological speculation, gongra signifying 6ARAMANTE& "a goat" in the Paphhigoiiifln hngvagCL h tiK ecclesiastical writers Gangra is often mentMnsd as the metropolitan see of Paphhgook. (Socrat. u. 43; Soaom. HL 14, and elsewhere.) The tirchaxds of this town werp cdebrated for tlM exoeOsnoe of apples. (Athen. iiL p^ 82.) [L. S.! GANNASIA PR. [Libta.] GANODU'RUM (IWi(8o»|Nir), one of the Helvetian dties mentioned by Ptolemy (iL 9. a. 90)l The termination dwr seems to show that it was on some river, but there is no evidence of any kind, ex- cept Ptolemy's figures, to fix its position: aod that evidence is worth nothing. Some reasons have be«a given for supposing it to be near the eotraaoe of the Rhine, on to the hkt of Cmu/tam^ not lar btm Stein, (Wakkenaer, QtogrofU deg- Chndm, veL i p. 317.) [G. L.] GANUS (rdbwff or Tows), apparently a moimtaia fortress ia Thrace, oa the coast of the PrepoeiliB. (Xenoph. Anab. vn. 5. § 8; HarpocraL and Said. s. a.; Plin. iv. 18; ScyUx, p. 28.) Aescfaines (ad». CUtipk, pi 65) speaks of Gauus along with aUier phMxs as scarce^ known to the Atheniaoa, aad mentions Gamt akog with Ganos, from vrhidh we may infer that the farmer was the name af the  plied to all the Libyan tribes inhabiting the oasas ia the E. part of the Great Desot, as the Gaetaliaas inhabited its W. part; the boundary between the tw« nations being drawn at the sooroes of the Bagradas and the mountain Usaiigala. In this wide sense th^ were considered as extoiding & and E. to the lake Nuba and both banks of the river Glr, as fiar as the mountains called Garamahtiga Phjlramx {jk Ta- ^ofAoarrtK^ ♦opct/l), whkih Ptolemy plaoea in 4^ long, and 10° N. lat, K of M. Thaiji, and K of M. Araitoab. (Ptol. iv. 6. §§ 12, 18, 16.) In the stricter sense, however, the name i^mnlrd the people of Phazahia (Fesam), a region lying & of the Great Syitls, between 24*^ and 31^^ N. lit. and 12° and 18° £. long., and forming I7 &r the largest oasis in the Great Desert (8tAara which it may be considered as dividing into an eastern aad a western part It is surrounded by hills of stoae and sand, not exceeding 1200 feet high, which pf»- tect it from the sands of the desert: the chief ^ these are the two parallel ranges on the NE. caUed the Black and WhiU Hang (i. e. MvmOmm), the former being of basalt, and the latter of hme- stone (the former is the Moms Atkr of the an- cients); and that on the W. called (Tarana, perh^e the ancient UsAROAUk. It is, however, only a small part, not above one-tenth, of the surface that is cultivable; the rqgion being intersected by rid^oi of hills from 300 to 600 feet high: and even in the valleys between these ridges the soil is a stratmn of sand, on chalk or clay, iMedlng constant irrigatioa, to supply which there are no water« courses, and veiy few natural springs; so that the water haa to he obtained from wells, at the depth of about 100 feet. The soil is impregnated with saline mattsr, aervii^ as a manure for the date-palms, winch are the chief vegetable producte of the ooontry: a little grain ia also grown at the present day.