352 PTOLEMY AND LATER GEOGRAPHERS. [CHAP.
follows a north-easterly direction through Central Asia To
it Ptolemy appropriates the name of Imaus, which had hitherto
been assigned to a portion of the Himalaya; and it is from
this that the distinction is derived, which is commonly intro-
duced in maps of the ancient world, between Scythia intra
Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum1. He furnishes information,
Direct Trade to°J w*th reSar<*to tlie trade-route which traversed
Route to the interior of Asia from the passage of the Eu-
Chma. phrates to Sera in Northern China. The distances
along this, he says on the authority of Marinus, had been com-
puted by a merchant of Macedonian extraction, called Maes,
though not from his own observations, but from information
which he obtained from his travelling agents3.
In the account of Africa which follows, it is highly interesting,
in the light of recent discoveries, to read of the
the°Niie.S °f sources of the main stream of the Nile as being
found in two lakes which lay to the southward of
the equator8; and that these lakes were fed by the snows of a
mountain range which lay beyond them, called the
Mountains of the Moon—a name which was
destined to be a source of perplexity to travellers
and geographers down to our own times4. The intelligence
which is contained in these statements was probably trans-
mitted, not by way of the Nile valley, which was not followed
by traders beyond the marshy region which has been already
noticed, but from the coast in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar,
where the station of Khapta had been established. On this
supposition it is not improbable that the lakes here spoken of
are the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the mention of so
unusual a phenomenon as snow-covered mountains in the
neighbourhood of the equator supports the conjecture that the
Mountains of the Moon are none other than Mounts Kilimanjaro
(19,700 ft.) and Kenia (18,370 ft.), which lie between those
lakes and the sea. With regard to the central dis-
The Soudan*
tricts of Africa also Ptolemy furnishes us with fresh
information, for he notices—though with a somewhat tantalising
1 6. 14,15. * i. ii. 4—7.
* 4. 7.23, 24. * 4.8. 3.