they find water after digging to the depth of a cubit 5.

One is surprised to find Herodotus believe that "streams of water, equally cool and sweet," flowed from the summits of some or all of the hills of salt. (Melp. 181.) That water runs down from Had-deffa (from dews not rain), we are told by Dr. Shaw; but he tells us also, that it left, on evaporation, a beautiful white salt on the plain. (Page 229.)

The salt plains or vallies of Arzew and the Shott (Shaw, 114. 229.) may be supposed to be two of those meant by Herodotus; and which in their nature, may be compared to the salt plain near Aleppo; that is, the water, which at certain seasons flows into and covers them, is so deeply impregnated with salt, as to leave a thick crust over them, when evaporated. The Shott is described to be 50 miles in length, in the map: the valley of Arzew is only six miles in compass. Part of the lake Lowdeiah (Tritonis) is also a saline. (P. 230.)

But it would appear, that the region which contains so great a portion of salt, is confined to the northward of the Tropic; since salt is universally carried from that region, to the central and southern states. The kingdom of Kasseena, and the countries bordering on it to the south, are supplied from the salt lake of Domboo, a district of the kingdom of Bornou, situated within the vast desert of Bilmah, at 45 journies from Agadez, the ancient capital of

In the Oases, generally, the water lies very near the surface.

Kasseena, and nearly under the Tropic. The people of Agadez possess this carrying trade, and employ 1000 camels, which form an annual caravan o.

The salt consumed in the inland part of Western Africa, is brought from mines situated on the southern edge of the Sahara. The reader will find many particulars relating to this subject, in the Travels of Mr. Park; and particularly in the Appendix to that work.

This inquiry, on the whole, gives a degree of credit to the assertions of Herodotus; since some of his mountains and beds of salt are found really to exist: and it is satisfactory to find such coincidences between him and modern authors.

* See Proceedings of the Afr. Assoc. for 1790; chap. vii. The salt lake of Domboo agrees generally to the position of the Chelonides Palus of Ptolemy, in respect of Cyrene. Pliny mentions a lake within the country formerly belonging to the Psylli, which was surrounded by deserts. Its name was Lycomedis. Pliny, lib. v. c. 4.

SECTION XXIII.

CONCERNING THE TWO GULFS, ANCIENTLY DENOMINATED THE SYRTES: AS ALSO CONCERNING THE LAKE AND RIVER TRITONIS; THE TEMPLE AND ÆGIS OF MINERVA; AND THE ANTIQUITY OF THE MANUFACTURE OF DYED SKINS IN AFRICA.

The SYRTES, the terror of ancient mariners—Irregular tides and quicksands, the causes of the danger—Position and extent of the Syrtes-Lake Serbonis, a kind of Syrtis-General ideas of the ancients respecting them-Imperfect state of the ancient navigation, an additional cause of danger-GREATER SYRTIS, or Gulf of Sidra-Poetical description of it by Lucan-Goodwin Sand, compared to the quicksands of the Greater Syrtis— LESSER SYRTIS, or Gulf of Kabes-Its description by the ancients, agrees pointedly to that by the moderns—Its Tides— Lake of Tritonis, or Lowdeiah, anciently communicated with the Syrtis-Herodotus included both under the name of Tritonis -Jason driven amongst its shallows-Difficulties respecting the river Tritonis, attempted to be solved-Ægis and Temple of Minerva, at the Lake Tritonis-Greeks borrow the Ægis from Africa-Antiquity of the manufacture of dyed skins, in Africa-Used in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness-That and the Ægis covered with the same kind of skins.

THE SYRTES, which were the terror of ancient mariners, are two wide, shallow gulfs, which pene

trate very far within the northern coast of Africa, between Carthage and Cyrene; in a part where it already retires very far back, to form the middle bason, or widest part of the Mediterranean sea. The north and east winds, of course, exert their full force on these shores, which are entirely exposed to them at the same time that not only certain parts of those shores are formed of moveable sand, but the gulfs themselves are also thickly sown with shallows of the same kind, which, yielding to the force of the waves, are subject to variation in their forms and positions. To this must be added the operation of the winds, in checking or accelerating the motions of the tides; which are therefore reducible to no rules. And from these causes, combined, the depths are so uncertain, that experience, it would appear, proved of no avail to mariners'.

The two Syrtes are more than 200 G. miles asunder, and were distinguished by the terms GREATER, and LESSER; of which it would appear, Herodotus knew only the former by the name of

ranean.

1 It is a common idea, that there are no tides in the MediterNor do they indeed rise in any part of that sea, in a degree sufficient either to effect the usual purposes of laying ships on shore to careen; or even in many places so as to affect the senses of those who are accustomed to view the ordinary rise and fall of tides on the coasts of the ocean. But that a tide does exist, is certain; and that it rises five and six feet in particular places. Herodotus speaks of the ebbing and flowing of the tide in the gulf of Melis; which, he says, "may be seen every day." Polym. 198. This is the small gulf on which Thermopyla stands.

13

Syrtis, the latter by that of the Lake Tritonis 2. Not but that both were known, and had obtained the above distinctive names, in the time of Scylax3, whom we may conceive to have written before the time of Herodotus *. But it is remarkable that our author is entirely silent concerning the properties of the Syrtis which he thus mentions by name, whilst he speaks of the dangers of the other in a pointed manner. We are not, however, from this silence, to infer that he was ignorant of the dangers of the Greater Syrtis 5.

The greater Syrtis bordered on the west of the province of Cyrenaica, and penetrated to the depth of about 100 miles within the two capes, that formed its mouth, or opening; which were, that of Boreum on the east, Cephalus, or Trieorium on the west. In front, it was opposed to the opening of the

2

Scylax (page 48) also names it Sinus Tritonicus; and Syrtis parva; and Strabo, p. 834, the gulf of the Lotophagi.

3

Pages 48, 49.

Scylax appears to have lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes.

5

The Serbonitic lake, near Mount Casius, situated between Palestine and Egypt, appears to have been a kind of inland Syrtis. Diodorus describes its borders as being formed of a very dangerous kind of quicksand, (lib. i. 3.): and says (lib. xvi. 9.) that Artaxerxes Mnemon lost part of his army there, in his march into Egypt; about 350 B.C.

M. Maillet, p. 103, supposes it to be quite filled up.

The boundaries of the greater Syrtis cannot well be misunderstood, as the capes which confine it are so marked and prominent. See Strabo, p. 836.

Ptolemy, Africa, Tab. II.