THE ARABIANS. S9S 
Nile of the Negroes, nearly midway between its 
point of separation from that of Egypt and its 
termination, was the metropolis of all the Maho- 
metan kingdoms, the main channel of communi- 
cation with Northern Africa, and, consequently, 
the grand source from which information was ' 
drawn. At the distance of forty days' journey 
westward from Gana this river fell into the sea, 
and near its mouth was Ulil, resorted to by all 
the states along the Nile for a supply of salt. If 
the position of Ulil could be fixed, it would afford 
a key to the whole system of Arabian geography ; 
but the investigation is attended with considera- 
ble difficulty. The distances of forty days from 
Gana, and of one month from Agades, seem to 
place totally out of the question the idea of its 
being situated on the ocean, unless we suppose 
their measures erroneous in an enormous degree, 
and of which there is no other instance. The 
terms used by Edrisi render it possible, that by 
sea, he might merely mean an inland lake. Yet, 
from the general scope of his work, I rather in- 
cline to suspect that he mistook the lake for the 
sea, and some point on its opposite shore for an 
island. It appears, however, to have been better 
understood by subsequent geographers. Thus 
Ibn-al-Vardi describes Ulil as a great city, situ- 
ated on the shore of the Bakr, (sea or lake).* 
Notices des Manuscrits du Roi, II. 3^. 
