Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/416

882 Flint's kattteal histoet. [Book V. story there are still existing in its vicinity many vestiges which tend to prove that the locality was once inhabited ; such as the remains of vineyards and plantations of palm-trees. Suetonius Paulinns whom we have seen Consul in our own time, w^as the first Eoman general who advanced a distance of some miles beyond Mount Atlas. He has given us the same information as we have received from other sources with reference to the extraordinary height of this mountain, and at the same time he has stated that all the lower parts about the foot of it are covered with dense and lofty forests composed of trees of species hitherto un- known. The height of these trees, he says, is remarkable ; the trunks are without knots, and of a smooth and glossy surface ; the foliage is like that of the cypress, and besides sending forth a powerful odour, they are covered with a flossy Sovm, from which, by the aid of art, a fine cloth might easily be manufactured, similar to the textures made from the produce of the silk-worm. He informs us that the summit of this mountain is covered with snow^ even in summer, and says that having arrived there after a march of ten days, he proceeded some distance beyond it as far as a river which bears the name of Ger^; the road being through deserts covered with a black sand^, from which rocks that bore the appearance of having been exposed to the action of fire, pro- jected every here and there ; localities rendered quite uninha- bitable by the intensity of the heat, as he himself experienced, 1 The same general who afterwards conquered the Britons under Boa- dicea or Bonduca. While Propreetor in Mauritania under the Emperor Claudius, in the year A.D. 42, he defeated the Mauri who had risen in revolt, and advanced, as PHny here states, as far as Mount Atlas. It is not known from what point Paulinus made his advance towards the Atlas range. Mannert and Marcus are of opinion that he set out from Sala, the modern Sallee, while LatreUle, Malte Brun, and Walkenaer think that his point of departure was the mouth of the river Lixos. Sala was the most southerly town on the western coast of Africa that in the time of Pliny had submitted to the Eoman arms. 2 Some of the editions read ' Niger' here. Marcus suggests that that river may have been called 'Niger' by the Phoenician or Punic colonists of the western Mauritania, and 'Ger' or' Grar' in another quarter. The same writer also suggests that the SigHmessa was the river to which Paulinus penetrated on his march beyond Atlas. ' The SigUraessa, according to Marmol, flows betAveen several moun- tains which appear to be of a blackish hue.