shore that the classic poets drew some of their most awful images, and some of their brightest illusions. The Syrtes, so terrible to mariners, the moving sands which buried the traveller, are contrasted in those legends with the fountain of Apollo, the hill of the Graces, and the Hesperian gardens, with their golden fruits and fabled guardian. But the chief present interest is derived from the magnificent monuments of one of the most flourishing of the many colonies which polished and prolific Greece scattered round the Mediterranean. Cyrene is a celebrated name in antiquity. Guarded, indeed, by nature with so many terrors, it came little into contact with the other great nations, and had little action on the destinies of the world. In the room of foreign conflict, however, it was shaken by a series of violent interior agitations, arising chiefly among the petty tyrants who held early sway over this as over the other Grecian states. Only the most bloody and desperate of these struggles have found their way into the Grecian annals, which, as M. Pacho justly complains, scarcely record any movements of the people, except those made for purposes of mutual slaughter. On the course of its peaceful policy, history observes a deep silence. Yet it undoubtedly shared in that brilliant career of art and civilization, which was run by its sister states. It even boasted a peculiar school of philosophy, known over the lettered world by the title of the Cyrenean; and marked by a tone of gay voluptuousness and sportive license, which seems to contrast strangely either with its wild and secluded position, or the sanguinary tumults, which have been exclusively recorded as its history. That a school, of which the heads were Aristippus and Carneades,—the gay and pliant courtier, who could assume at will every colour and every character-and the seducing sophist, whose conversation was dreaded as enough to sap all the sternness of Roman virtuethat these should have been bred on the sequestered shore of Cyrene, is an anomaly which could only be explained by documents which have probably for ever perished.

The Ptolemies, after obtaining dominion over Egypt, easily extended their sway to Cyrene, which, under their mild and enlightened administration, continued to flourish. Nor did it decline under the Roman yoke, notwithstanding violent disturbances raised by the Jews, who were established there in great numbers. It was under the Mahommedan rule, which has spread such a deep barbarism over the seats of ancient civilization, that Cyrene, which could not exist without some artificial support, sunk lower than all the others. Its fine valleys became the domain of the wandering Arabs, and only distinguished from the

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surrounding desert, by maintaining a greater number of tents and herds.

Though travellers of more than one country have recently explored this interesting region, the only government which has taken any concern in the affair, was the British, which, with its usual zeal for geographical discovery, employed Captain Beechey, and his brother, an artist of great merit, to examine and delineate whatever appeared worthy of notice along the shores of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica; while Captain Smith attended with his vessel, to carry off whatever deserved and would admit of removal. This task was accomplished in 1821 and 1822, and its result is the volume now before us, in which the topography and antiquities of this interesting region appear to be described with care and accuracy. The relation, also, between its ancient and present state, is traced with considerable learning and some judgment. Della Cella, an Italian physician, had, some years before, followed the Bey of Tripoli in an expedition along this shore, and published observations, which are not devoid of interest, though, being the result of a very hasty survey, they have been in a great measure superseded by the more careful examinations since made. More recently, the Society formed at Paris for the promotion of Geography proposed, in 1824, a prize of 3000 francs to any traveller who should give the best account of the country called by the ancients Cyrenaica or Pentapolis. Before the end of the following year, M. Pacho presented himself to claim the prize; and his information and materials being submitted to a commission composed of Malte Brun, Barlicé de Bocage, and Joubert, were favourably reported on, and the prize adjudged to him. M. Pacho, however, has yet published only his first livraison, which does not extend beyond Marmorica; but the Report of the Commission, with a notice which, at their desire, he himself read before the Society, comprises a pretty complete outline of the information which he collected.

To understand the physical outline of Cyrenaica, we must consider Northern Africa generally as one huge plain of moving sand, extending several thousand miles in every direction. Two grand features alone break its vast and dreary uniformity. One is the Nile, which flows through the eastern quarter, and by the distribution of its waters, forms the habitable countries of Nubia and Egypt. The other is Atlas, that great mountain chain, which, with its branches, runs nearly parallel to the Mediterranean, and by the numerous streams which it pours down, creates the fertile plain of Barbary. About a thousand miles to the west of Egypt, the branches of Atlas sink into hillocks and disappear. Sand, consequently, seems to have regained an un

disputed empire; but, in the middle of this waste, there rises, along the coast, a steep and high ridge, abounding in springs, which sprinkle the surrounding desert with valleys of the most brilliant verdure and fertility. This is Cyrenaica.

In endeavouring to embody the observations thus recently made on the North-African coast, we shall follow the tract of Captain Beechey, introducing such additions and illustrations as may be afforded by the other authorities.

After passing Taguira, in the vicinity of Tripoli, the traveller comes on a portion of that plain of sand which covers the great body of Northern Africa. For a few days, and while no fear is felt of a failure of water, there is something, it is said, rather pleasing and romantic in such a journey. The traveller enjoys the image of unbounded space, the deep stillness and solitude, and the interest excited by the smallest object which appears above its vast monotonous surface. Our travellers doubt, with Brown, whether this sand ever moves in such dense clouds or columns, as that caravans or armies could have been actually buried under it. It is merely supposed, that after perishing from thirst or other causes, the sand had gradually accumulated over them.

This, however, was not the termination of the fertile land of Barbary. A few days brought to their view the plain of Lebeda, ⚫ than which a more beautiful scene can scarcely be witnessed. 'Thick groves of olive and date trees are seen rising above the 'villages which are scattered over its surface; and the interme'diate spaces are either covered with the most luxuriant turf, or ' rich with abundant crops of grain.' It is considered much superior to the territory of Tripoli; and, accordingly, was more highly prized by the ancients. They built on it Leptis Magna, which ranked, among Phenician colonies, next to Carthage and Utica, and continued a handsome city to the latest period of the Roman sway. Its remains are described by Della Cella, as 'only a heap of shapeless ruins, half buried under the sand, which 'the wind and sea mutually strive to accumulate over them. They present, however, remains of magnificent edifices, dila'pidated towers, fallen and shattered columns, partly of red gra'nite, partly of every species of marble, among which the Pari'an, the Pentelic, and the Oriental porphyry, are the most con'spicuous.' Captain Smith, having fixed upon some of the finest of these fragments, and obtained the Bey's permission to remove them, returned in January 1817, with a vessel fitted for their reception. He was much dismayed to find the best specimens either carried off entire, or at least stripped of their richest ornaments. On making inquiry by what amateur he had been

thus anticipated, and what European cabinet these monuments were to adorn, he learned, that their destruction had arisen from a humbler source. On the natives being informed of the permission granted by the Bey, an alarm seized them, that they would lose the quarry, out of which they had long been accustomed to draw the semicircular stones used in their oil mills, which they had therefore been indefatigable in carrying off and secreting. Captain Smith made deep excavations in the sand, and found numerous fine remains, but all broken and even chipped into shapeless fragments; so that a number of shafts formed at last all the booty he was able to carry off.

A similar country continues to Mesurata, the plain west of which, compared by Herodotus to that of Babylon, is considered by Della Cella, as in fact one of the most fertile of Northern Africa. Mesurata is somewhat of a thriving town, carrying on manufactures of fine carpets, and a large trade with Central Africa, for which it especially imports glass beads, to adorn the beauties of Timbuctoo. At Mesurata terminates the plain of Barbary; and it is abruptly succeeded by the awful and desolate expanse of Sert, or the Syrtis. Captain Beechey has drawn a striking picture of this contrasted scene, as viewed from the sand-hills between Mesurata and the sea.

At the foot of these morasses and to the westward, are the varied and cultivated lands of Mesurata; here are seen endless groves of palm trees and olives, among which are scattered numerous villages and gardens, rich tracts of corn land, flocks of sheep and goats, and every where a moving and busy population. To the eastward a te

nantless and desolate waste, without a single object rising from its surface, lies stretched in one long unbroken line, as far as the eye can range. Not a single tree or shrub is on that side to be seen; not a single house or tent, not a single human being, or animal of any description.

In fact the effect of the Greater Syrtis from this place, is that of a dreary moor-a wide tract of level waste land-without any thing to distinguish one part of it from another, but the windings of a marsh, which threads its dark surface, and is lost in different parts of the unbroken horizon.'

It was upon this desolate region that the travellers were now to enter. Their route lay first through a marsh about forty miles long and fifteen inland, supposed to be that described by Strabo as a lake; though the term which he uses is ambiguous. A saline crust covered the surface, which often gave way under the horses' feet, and discovered hollow spaces of various depths, with water underneath. The Arabs gave very solemn warning as to the dangerous character of the ground, and the great caution which it required; but as the English never

sunk to any perilous depth, they treated this as African hyperbole, and took a pride in galloping fearlessly over this hollow surface. At length they received a pretty serious lesson; for

Two of our party were making their way across the marsh, to something which bore the appearance of a ruin; the ground suddenly gave way beneath the feet of the foremost horse, and discovered a hollow of ten or twelve feet in depth, at the bottom of which appeared water. The animal, who was galloping at the time, feeling the insecurity of his footing, sprung violently forward, with all the energy of terror, and by this sudden exertion saved himself and his rider from destruction; for it would not have been possible to extricate either from such a place. The ground continued to crack and break away for some distance farther, as the horse galloped on from the hole, and a large aperture was soon formed in the crusted surface of the marsh, as the pieces fell in one after another. We afterwards took the precaution to dismount, when we had occasion to cross any part considered to be dangerous. We found on examination, that many hollow spaces of considerable depth and extent existed in various parts of the marsh, and that the crust of salt and mud which covered them, was sometimes no more than two inches, or an inch and a half, in thickness.'

After traversing this dreary tract, the appearance of Sooleb, with some pasturage and a few flocks and herds, was extremely cheering. The marshy ground gradually disappeared, and the rest of the Syrtic region, though arid and dreary in a high degree, presented from time to time little valleys or detached spots, the verdure of which afforded an agreeable relief. Through the whole of this extent of upwards of four hundred miles, there is not a single fixed habitation, nor a vessel or fishing-boat of any description. It is tenanted solely by Arabs, with their flocks, herds, and movable tents. There are, however, both records and traditions of ancient towns, among which Sert, or Sort, appears to have been conspicuous. Ancient civilization is also attested by a continuous chain of forts, affording the means of an uninterrupted defensive war against the barbarous tenants of the interior. These are of a quadrangular form, capable of holding from 50 to 100 men, and usually built over springs of water. They had neither gate, window, nor any opening whatever, except at the tops, to which the garrison and those who fled to them for protection must have got access by ladders.

Captain Beechey had an opportunity to examine the nautical character of this gulf, the perils of which are painted by the ancients in such direful colours. Lucian has described it as a region in which the distinction between land and sea was still imperfectly established; where the navigator could not proceed without striking continually on concealed shoals; while the VOL. XLVIII. NO. 95.

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