102 JOURNEY FROM sand-stone *, which may be (at a rough estimation) about an hundred feet above the level of the sea. This high land is divided into three distinct heads, or capes, and is described by Captain Lautier as having the appearance (from the sea) of three f hills in the form of as many islands. The low ground at the back and to the south-east of these capes is thickly covered with datetrees, but their summits are now bare of wood and destitute of any vegetation : the sand-stone in fact is fast crumbling away, and the height of the promontory is every day diminishing. The appearance of this triple cape coincided so well, in our estimation, with the description given by Strabo of the Cephalas Promontorium|, that we have not hesitated to pronounce it the same with that headland.

It does not however form the precise point, or western extremity, of the gulf, which is in fact a low rocky projection, scarcely above the level of the sea, about four miles distant from the cape : but this point is too low to be remarked from the sea, and Strabo, when he observed the cape from his vessel, may well be excused for having overlooked it. The or Triaerorum Promontorium of Ptolemy is no * Dr. Della Celia has confounded the sand-hills with the promontory, the latter of which he asserts is composed entirely of sand ; they are however as distinct from each other as sand-stone may be said to be from sand. The sand-hills are, besides, at some distance from the sea, and the promontory immediately upon it.

t II Capo Mesurata, a tre circa leghe di distanza, si mostra sotto 1’ apparenza di tre monticelli a foggia di ti-e isolotti — See Lautier’s Memoir, attached to the Viaggio da Tripoli, 8fc., by Della Celia.

I Eit’ axqa vrikn nau rrts /xeyaXnr uqlscos, aocXHai Se K.£aXas' Lib. 17, § 18.