TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 271 shores. Herodotus, although he has minutely described the people who inhabited the coasts of the Syrtes, has left no account of the Gulfs ; but w e learn from Strabo, that the dangers which presented themselves to navigators, in the Gulfs both of the Greater and Lesser Syrtis, were occasioned by the frequent occurrence of banks and shallows, formed by the flux and reflux of the sea, on which vessels were continually striking, and it rarely happened that any of them were got off*. “ For this reason,” he adds, “ it was usual to keep away from the coast, in order to avoid being embayed What we must here understand by the flux and reflux of the sea, is not (we should imagine) the usual action of the tides, which is very trifling in the Mediterranean, compared with that which is observable in other seas ; but the inset occasioned by violent winds blowing for any long continuance on shore, and the subsequent reaction of the sea in regaining its original level.

As northerly winds are very prevalent, and very strong on this coast, which fronts the widest part of the Mediterranean, they might no doubt occasion the accumulation of soil alluded to in this passage of Strabo ; and we certainly find that a great part of the coast is so exceedingly shallow as to make the landing very hazardous and difficult. It is probable, also, that this accumulation of * 'H Ss xai rctvrris rns Jtai rris on 'TtoWctKov T£va7wS»iy es'v T )tstra tas ai/.’jturns xau ra,s TrXn/A/xygiJas'j avuQouvsi Tistv ewj'S'teiv Eiy xai xocStsiv' cTTaviov S'eivou to suoevqv axa(pof, Aiotte 7ro§a)dsv tov Traga'zrXoyv Ttoiovvrca, (pv'ka.r-ToptEVOi f/.'n efjo’KsmiEv sir rovs xoXttovs vii aveijouv a(pv'kaxrot XriipdEvres. (Lib. 17. § 20.)

The word axtz(pos here used, though it means literally boat, appeal’s to be applied in this passage to vessels in general.