410 THEORIES RESPECTING THE NIGER, 
all others direct their course towards the ocean, 
" this one flows towards the east, and the centre 
" of the continent ; and whither it goes is quite 
uncertain." It would be difficult to express, 
in more accurate terms, the actual state of our 
knowledge in respect to the Niger. Mela men- 
tions then as a plausible conjecture, that this river 
may end in being the Nile 5 but he positively re- 
jects the hypothesis of its sinking under ground, 
very reasonably ascribing such a report to the 
long tract of unknown territory through which it 
flows, and where, not being seen, it is supposed 
not to exist. 
The Roman writers appear, from the sources 
above mentioned, to have derived somewhat more 
extended ideas with regard to Western Africa 
than were attained by the Greeks. Ptolemy, 
however, generally speaking, obtained a much 
more correct view of the courses of the African 
rivers than any of his predecessors. He, first 
among the ancients, rejects wholly the idea of 
the identity of the Nile and Niger, lays down the 
sources of the former in their true position, and ex- 
hibits the latter as a distinct and separate stream. 
If we are asked, however, in what direction he 
represents it as flowing, the question is exceed- 
ingly difficult to answer. The following extract 
includes all he communicates on the subject. 
After remarking, that " in the interior flow 
