TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 191 of thePhilagni* might be looked for, had they still been in existence, the most eligible situation which would present itself for a boundary post is certainly that of Bengerwd ; and this, as we have stated, is so extremely well calculated for such a purpose, that we can scarcely suppose it could have been overlooked by the king of Egypt when he fixed the new limits of his dominions.

It will be unnecessary to trouble our readers with any protracted discussion of a point which admits of no positive proof ; and we will leave others to decide, without further remark, how far the meaning of the term employed by Strabo may be extended, in consideration of the reasons which we have alleged.

On leaving Wady Shegga we passed over a tract of red sand collected in little hiUocks about the plain, which were, however, as well as the spaces between them, occasionally covered with vegetation.

We here saw some gazelles, hares, and jackalls, and a good many jerboas, and fired at a snake about six feet in length, which the Arabs told us swelled out when much irritated, and was very venomous : he however escaped slightly grazed into a hole in the sand. This was the only snake of any size which we had seen in the Syrtis ; it was of a very dark colour, and about as thick as a man’s wrist.

Immediately behind the promontory which we have mentioned above, * We have already stated, on the authority of Pliny, that the Philaenean Altars were of sand ; and as they must be looked for in this neighbourhood, we have supposed them to have been erected in the sandy tract which we shall shortly mention in our progress eastward from Bengerwkd. For had they been raised on a spot where other materials could have been easily obtained, it is not probable that any so unstable as sand would have been used for the commemoration of so noble an action as that which occasioned their erection.