Appendix A. 
Dr. Heinrich Kiepert also appears to accept the same view where he writes 
in his Treatise on Ancient Geography: “The expression ‘Bine Mountains 
(Jibel gomr), given by the Arabs to those great mountain masses (Kenia, 
Kilimanjaro and others), seen only from afar, and indistinctly, has long been 
wrongly interpreted in the sense of ‘ Mountains of the Moon ’ (Jibel-el-Qamar), 
and thus gave rise to the translation 'S.eXyvy* byos which is given on Ptolemy’s 
map, and to an error which the recent explorations in that region of Africa 
have banished from our maps and from our books.” ( 3 ) “ The strange name of 
Mountains of the Moon,” says Prof. Alfred Kirchhoff, “ is due probably to an 
interchange of two Arab terms or to the twofold meaning of one and the same 
term.” ( 4 ) And, in fact, the Arab writer el-Nowairi, quoted by Masudi, asserts 
that Kamar (read Qamar) means both moon and white. And in this connection 
it will not be beside the question to note that Aristotle had already placed the 
sources of the Nile in a ‘ Silver Mountain ’ ('Ayg vyeo<s oyu?). ( 5 ) This Silver 
Mountain has a striking analogy with the White Mountain of the mediaeval 
Arab writers, an analogy which suggests some important and sensible reflections 
to Vivien de Saint-Martin. ( (i ) 
If the mention of the Mountains of the Moon, or else of the 'W hite 
Mountains (!) is of Arab origin, which, besides the stated reasons, might also be 
shown to be probable from the fact that no allusion to that lofty range is made 
in the edition of Ptolemy’s Geography issued by Donis in 1482, (~) the latitude 
12° 30' S. would have been inserted in the text to bring it into accord 
with the position assigned by the Alexandrian Geographer to the two lakes, 
sources of the Nile. And respecting these lakes, here is what we gather 
from the seventh chapter of Book IV :— 
The western lake has latitude (south) 6° and longitude 57°; the eastern is 
at latitude (south) 7° and longitude 65°. The rivers issuing from these two 
lakes unite at north latitude 2° and under the 60th meridian, and they thus 
form the chief branch of the Nile, which at north latitude 2° and under the 
61st meridian receives the River Astapus, emissary from Lake Coloe, which lies 
on the eqninoxial line and under the 69th degree of longitude. 
It is quite understood that the Ptolemaic data referring to geographical 
features are not to be taken literally. The number of astronomic observations 
at the command of Ptolemy was very limited ; the results of those few observa¬ 
tions, especially for the longitudes, were nearly all very far from the actual. 
To accomplish the gigantic work that he had undertaken, no better means 
occurred to the Geographer than that of reducing to astronomic data the 
elements—distances and directions—derived from the itineraries both by land 
and water, or already known from previous works, amongst which, first and 
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