TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 261 in modern charts, as well as the inlet called the Gulf of Zuca, which we have stated does not exist, are neither of them laid down in it at all. It may therefore be said, that the true character of the gulf is much better preserved in the loose outline of Ptolemy than in any other of which we are aware. Whatever may be the reasons which have induced modern geographers to introduce into the Gulf of Syrtis the errors which we have alluded to, it is certain that the best chart which they have hitherto produced of it must undergo a correction of ninety miles in longitude, and upwards of thirty miles in latitude, that is to say, it must part with nearly six thousand square miles of ground, before it will be consistent with the truth.

Should we pass from the measurements to the general character of the Syrtis, we shall find that if the ancient authorities have erred in their dimensions of it, they have been no less deceived with regard to its nature and resources. The whole country from Bengazi to Mesurata appears to have been generally considered by the writers oi antiquity as a dreary tract of sand, without water or vegetation, and swarming with venomous serpents. But we have already shewn that there are spots in this tract where vegetation is very luxuriant, and where water may be readily procured ; and although the extent of marshy ground is in many places considerable, yet the proportions between the barren and the productive parts of the Syrtis are not so little in favour of the latter as appears to have been generally imagined. The whole tract is so thinly inhabited, that a very trifling portion of it only is cultivated ; but this circumstance is owing more to the character of the Bedouins who frequent it, and to the govern-