376 APPENDIX C. 



leans to the belief that Suetonius ascended the valley of the 

 Moulouya, and traversed the Atlas by the pass now called Tizin 

 Tinrout, leading to Tafilelt. This was the pass traversed by 

 Gerhard Rohlfs in 1864, and to his narrative alone we can 

 refer for infoimation respecting it and the country extending 

 southward towards the Great Desert. The existence in that 

 part of W. Africa, on the south side of the Great Atlas, so far 

 from the influence of the Atlantic cKmate, of vast forests 

 capable of maintaining elephants and sheltering a native popu- 

 lation, would apparently be irreconcilable with existing physical 

 conditions, and is not readily admissible in the Koman period. 

 Whatever vigorous vegetation exists in the region traversed by 

 Rohlfs adjoins the banks of the stream ; and, though sand may 

 encroach here and there, and sun-burnt rocks are seen there, as 

 elsewhere on the south side of the Atlas, the description is not 

 what would occur to any one following the course of the stream. 

 It seems, further, highly improbable that a prudent general, such 

 as Suetonius Paulinus, would have undertaken to lead an ag- 

 gi-essive military force along the tortuous valley of the Moulouya, 

 some 250 miles in length, enclosed for the most part between 

 lofty mountains ; and it is also to be noted that at the period of 

 his expedition the Romans held no station in the valley of the 

 Moulouya, if indeed they ever penetrated far into it. 



The few particulars quoted above lead to the conclusion 

 that the Roman general in his southward march beyond the 

 Atlas did not follow the course of a stream, but was compelled 

 to cross a tract of desert before reaching the river of which he 

 speaks, which, therefore, probably flowed from E. to W. On 

 the whole, it seems to me that the brief record is more easily 

 reconciled with the supposition that Suetonius Paulinus made 

 Sala (Sallee), the fiirthest Roman station in Western Africa, his 

 base of operations ; that he marched thence across the open 

 country towards SSW., and gained the summit of the Atlas 

 range at the pass between Imintanout and Tarudant.' Between 

 the course of the Sous and that of the Akassa, or river of Oued 

 Noun, there are extensive tracts of sandy desert, where, even in 

 winter, his troops may easily have suffered from heat and thirst; 

 and the river (called Ger) may have been the main branch,' or 

 one of the tributaries of the Akassa flowing from the range of 



' Mentioned in the text at p. 294. 



