TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI.

71 must have been sadly at variance with his assertions, had he really meant to bestow upon Byzacium so much more than he has stated it to contain The region of the Cinyphus has still the same peculiarities which it has been stated to possess by Herodotus ; there we still find the rich and dark-coloured soil, and the abundance of water which he mentions : but every thing degenerates in the hand of the Arab, and the produce of the present day bears no proportion to that which the historian- has recorded. The average rate of produce of this fine tract of country (so far, at least, as we could learn from the Arabs who inhabit it) is now scarcely more than ten for one ; and the lands in the neighbourhood of Zeliten and Mesurata are the only places cultivated to the eastward of the Cinyphus. The produce, in grain, is principally barley, with a moderate proportion only of wheat ; but the date-tree and the ohve are very generally distributed, and their crops are extremely abundant. We were informed that there was usually a considerable overplus of dates, olive-oil, and barley, both at Mesurata and Zehten ; and that the Arabs of the western parts of the Syrtis draw their principal supphes from the former of these places.

The country to the west of the Cinyphus is, to all appearance, * The interpx-etation which follows (in this part of Signor Della Celia’s work) of a passage which he has quoted from Scylax, and the adoption which he there proposes of the word itoraf/s instead of woXir, do not seem to rest, we fear, on any better foundation. (See Viaggio da Tripoli, &c., p. 48 — 9.)

The concluding words sri Se sgn/xof, rather appear to relate to the desert tract between Lebida and Tagiura, than to the country in the neighbourhood of the Cinyphus.