194 JOURNEY FROM tower to the westward. Here is however nothing certain but the existence of a boundary, and that of a town a little to the westward of it ; and it remains to be determined how far the facts which we have stated may be received as proofs of the positions which have been suggested for the tower of Euphrantas and the trading town of Charax, both of which must be looked for between Aspis and the bottom of the gulf, and to the westward of the Philasnean altars and the fortress of Automala*.

In alluding to the sale of the silphium at Charax, which he places as we have already stated at Zaffran, Signor Della Celia has indulged himself in his favourite practice of emendation, and has proposed a new reading in the passage of Strabo which mentions this town and its commerce f.

“ I will not speak to you of the silphium (says the Doctor) till I arrive in the place which produces it. ...but I cannot conceal from you that I have allowed myself to read, in translating this passage of Strabo, omv rov riXpiov, juice of the silphium, instead of otov kcu tri'kcptov, juice and silphium.” “We know that from this plant, pecuhar to the soil of the Cyrenaica, the Cyreneans extracted a most valuable liquid which was particularly celebrated in those times. The juice of this plant alone was sold on account of the state, and it was of this liquid only that the contraband trade consisted which is men-* For, after mentioning Charax, Strabo adds — nh' oi (ptXMvav /Soptoi, xai /ji.era, rovrovs A.urofxaXa (povqiov, (puXax.m s')qov, iSgo/XEVOi/ Kara rov f/.vy(pv rou koXhov itavrns' Here we find the fortress of Automala placed in the innermost recess of the gulf, which is much fai-ther to the eastward than the point to which we are at present arrived.

t Page 79, Italian edition.