PTOLEMY* 
889 
east, and only errs in making them, by their 
junction, form Meroe into an island. Westward 
from the Nile, he describes the vast range of 
Libya Interior, watered by the great rivers Gir 
and Niger. It had been generally understood, 
that this tract comprised the modern Nigritia ; 
that the Niger was the great river so well known 
in Europe under this name, though it is not so de- 
signated in any part of Africa ; and that the Gir 
is the river of Bornou. M. Gosselin,* however, 
and some other French geographers, have recently 
maintained that the tract of Nigritia was wholly 
unknown to Ptolemy ; that the countries and 
rivers of his Lybia Interior were merely those of 
the tract lying to the south of Atlas, known by the 
name of the Bled-eUJereede. Paradoxical as this 
opinion may at first sight appear, I do not appre- 
hend that it can be wholly rejected. The Gir, in 
particular, has so many points of relation with the 
combined streams of the Adjidi and Blanco, that 
it seems impossible not to recognize some mea- 
sure of identity. 1. The Gir rises on the oppo- 
site side of the same chain of mountains which 
gives rise to the Bagrada, the modern Mejerdah ; 
so does the Adjidi ; but the rivers of Interior 
Africa are at an immense distance. If the 
rivers of Interior Libya be not the rivers of the 
* Geographie des Anciens, Vol. iv. 
