This reminds me of a Sahara scene where the advancing dunes creeping south towards Timbuktu cannot be resisted, rolling over mosques and oasisses alike.  This looming hill, however, is topped with fertile loam, which both catches what rain falls while also letting it move through the elephantine hill’s share of the gritty nutritious mix of clay, sand, and silt that covers much of the Palouse wheat land.  While Horace, again, gives no peep on where we will find this setting, we may thank him for recording it.  Perhaps the single grazing horse near the horizon and to the right of the well-rutted road climbing the hill and the center of the subject also got his attention. (Click to Enlarge)