384 GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS 
tact. It appears to me then that Ptolemy has link- 
ed together the geographical features of central 
and northern Africa ; that in the Gir, he linked 
the head of the Adjidi to the head of the Misse- 
lad ; and, though no part of the Niger can be re- 
ferred to the north, its tributaries from that quar- 
ter are probably the rivers of Sigilmissa, hypothe- 
tically united to it. I doubt, however, if the Dara- 
dus and Stachir can be viewed as the Gambia and 
Senegal. Every remote space actually traversed is 
exaggerated, instead of being so remarkably dimi- 
nished, as, in the present instance, that between 
Mount Mandrus and the sea. Besides, from the 
Fortunate Islands, or Canaries, being placed oppo- 
site to these rivers, it seems clear, however far Car* 
thaginian discovery may have penetrated, that 
Ptolemy's knowledge of the western coast expired 
on the borders of the desert. It appears, therefore, 
that he knew nothing beyond the Niger in central 
Africa, which, in his system, locks in with the 
southern extremity of the Atlas ; the rivers flow- 
ing from which are thus brought into almost the 
immediate vicinity of the Niger. 
Ptolemy had finally to dispose of the route of 
three months, from the country of the Garamantes, 
and of four months from the Leptis Magna, made 
by Flaccus and Maternus into the country of the 
Ethiopians, * The suspicion and dissatisfaction which 
he shews on the subject of their statements, con- 
* Lib. 1. 8. 
