THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER. 399 
nia, a prince mor% eminent for his learning than 
his high rank. Pliny mentions, * that a Roman 
commander, Suetonius Paulinus, whom he had him- 
self seen, reported himself to have crossed the 
Western Atlas, which he described as modern tra- 
vellers have done, as of stupendous height, and co- 
vered with snow during the whole year. Beyond, 
through deserts of black dust, which, even in the 
depth of winter, were uninhabitable by the heat, 
he came to the river which is called Niger. There 
is nothing in this passage to suggest the immense 
space which must have been traversed after passing 
the Atlas, in order to arrive at the river of Soudan. 
This may give rise to the doubt, whether the river, 
supposed by him, at least, to be the Niger, might 
not rather be one of the streams of Tafilet. On 
the other hand, the deserts of sand, and the in- 
tensity of the heat, do not agree with the idea 
which we have of the Country of Dates. Pliny, 
however, enters into much greater detail in that 
extraordinary passage, where he traces the origin of 
the Nile, and its various transformations, t First, 
he informs us, that it springs from a mountain in 
Lower Mauritania, and issues out of a stagnant lake, 
called Nilis. Indignant, however, at running 
through rugged and sandy tracts, it hides itself un- 
* Hist. Nat. V. i. 
f lb. V. p. 
