GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH MAEOOCO. 373 



but, unless we assume that great physical changes have occurred 

 during the interval, this supposition is scarcely compatible with 

 the existence of a nu.merous population near the mouth of the 

 river. It may possibly have been the river Akassa (the native 

 name of the river of Oued Noun) ; but it appears far more 

 probable that it was the Sous, the only one of these rivers 

 which is believed constantly to discharge a large volume of 

 water into the sea. It may be, indeed, that there is an etymo- 

 logical connection between the names Sous and Lixus, as there 

 undoubtedly is between some names still current and those 

 used by the Romans. 



After Hanno, the next voyager along this coast of whom 

 we known anything was Polybius. The original record of his 

 voyage has, iinfortunately, not come down to posterity, but a 

 few particulars have been preserved by Pliny.' We learn inci- 

 dentally that the Romans called Cape Cantin promontorium 

 Solis, a name evidently suggested by the earlier name Solois of 

 the Carthaginians, afterwards rendered in Greek by Ptolemy 

 y\wv aKpoi: Whether Polybius succeeded in reaching the 

 Senegal, or some other river within the tropics, may be un- 

 certain ; but he undoubtedly visited many places on the Atlantic 

 coast of Marocco. We hear for the first time of the rivers 

 Suhur (modem Sebou), and Salat (the Bouregrag, which falls 

 into the sea at Sallee). He touched at the port of Buiulh, 

 said to ha-, e been eight Roman miles beyond the mouth of the 

 river Anatis, which was 205 Roman miles from Lixus (El 

 Araisch). The river is doubtless the modern Oum-er-bia, and 

 the port was the same which the Portuguese named Mazagan. 

 The next port touched by Polybius was named Riaadir, which 

 has been with much probability identified with Agadir.^ As 

 for the rivers named by Polybius on the coast south-west of the 

 Atlas, their identification with any known to modern geo- 

 graphers is jjurely conjectural. 



' See Pliny, V. 1, § 8. His account is vague and confused, and the 

 distances not to be reconciled with those given by him elsewhere. 



2 Not content with the indication afEorded by the identity of the two 

 termiaal syllables in each name, C. Miiller conjectures that the ancient 

 name of the promontory near Agadir was Eas adir, Eas being the com- 

 mon Arabic designation for a headland. He apparently supposes that 

 the natives spoke Arabic in the time of Polybius. Even now none of 

 the headlands on this coast have the designation Eas. 



