Note 2654 — BOOK IV. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

The loftiest point of the mountain-range that traverses the island of Crete from west to east. Its head is covered with snow. The modern name is Psiloriti, looking down on the plain of Mesara. The word Ida is supposed to mean a mountain in which mines are worked, and the Idæi Dactyli of Crete were probably among the first workers in iron and bronze. The position of Mount Cadistus, belonging to the range of White Mountains, has been fixed by Hoeck at Cape Spadha, the most northerly point of the island. It is thought that Pliny and Solinus are in error in speaking of Cadistus and Dictynnæus as separate peaks, these being, both of them, names of the mountain of which the cape was formed; the latter name having been given in later times, from the worship and temple there of Dictynna.