408 THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER^ 
learning. Pliny mentions,* that a Roman com- 
mander, Suetonius Paulinus, whom he had him- 
self seen, reported himself to have crossed the 
Western Atlas, which he described, as modern 
travellers have done, to be of stupendous height, 
and covered with snow during the whole year. 
Beyond, through deserts of black dust, which, 
even in the depth of winter, were uninhabita- 
ble 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 
hiTYiy 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 intensity 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 transformation s.t First, he in- 
forms us, that it springs from a mountain in 
Lower Mauritania, and issues out of a stagnant 
lake, called Nilis. Indignant, however, at flow- 
ing through rugged and sandy tracts, it hides 
itself under ground for several days, after which 
I Hi«t. Nat. V. i. 
t lb. V. 9. 
