GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH MAEOCCO. 375 



settlements on this coast may have had a prolonged existence. 

 The fall of the parent State -would have had but an indirect 

 influence on their destiny. Verbal resemblances are so often 

 misleading that little -weight can be attached to them ; but it is 

 natural to compare the -word Dyris, said by Pliny to be the na- 

 tive name for the Atlas, -with that now used by the natives — 

 Idrarn — this being the plural form of Ailrar, -which meauo 

 generically a mountain, both in the SheUuh and in several 

 other Bereber dialects. 



Besides what Pliny may have learned from King Juba as 

 to the geography of the coast of South Marocco, he had access to 

 contemporary testimony as to some part of the interior of the 

 country. Suetonius Paulinus (the same who at a later date 

 played a conspicuous part in Britain) being appointed governor 

 of the provinces of N.W. Africa, then recently incorporated in 

 the Roman Empire, resolved to penetrate southward beyond 

 the Great Atlas, whether with a view to intimidate the native 

 tribes, or for the mere satisfaction of carrying the Roman eagles 

 into a new region. He appears to have left a written account 

 of his expedition, which, lite so much else of ancient geogra- 

 phical literature, has been lost. The particulars preserved by 

 Pliny are unfortunately so vague as to be almost valueless. 



In ten days from his starting point, wherever that may have 

 been, we are told that he reached the highest point of his march. 

 He reported the mountain to be covered with dense forests of 

 trees of an unkno-wn kind, and declares the summit of the range 

 to be deeply covered with snow, even in summer.' From the 

 summit of the Atlas Suetonius descended, and marched on 

 through deserts of black sand, out of which rose here and there 

 rocks that had the aspect of being burnt, to a river called Ger. 

 Although it was the winter season the heat of these regions 

 was found intolerable. The neighbouring forests abounded in 

 elephants and other wild beasts, and with serpents of every 

 kind, and were inhabited by a people called Canarians. 



The controversies to which this passage has given rise are 

 not likely to be definitively decided. The balance of opinion 



' This must have been from native report, as the expedition was 

 made in winter. If he had said that the snow never quite disappears, 

 and sometimes falls heavily, even in summer, his statement would have 

 been accurate enough. 



