TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 273 sand, their lakes to have taken the character of marshes, and their quicksands (if ever they had any) to have become solid and firm To these remarks we may add the observations of Major Eennell, on the actual and former state of the Lake Tritonis and the Lesser Syrtis, which we will give in the author’s own words.

“ From the authorities which we shall presently adduce, we can suppose no other than that this Syrtis” (the Gulf of the Lesser Syrtis) “ did once enter much deeper into the land ; and that it even formed a junction with the Lake Lowdeah within it — the Tritonis Palus of the ancients. Otherwise we must not only reject the reports of Herodotus and Ptolemy, but that of Scylax also, the writer of a periplus, and who ought to have known the truth.” Again, after a learned and ingenious discussion — “ In effect the ancients, as Dr. Shaw justly observes (p. 213), seem to have described this quarter from report, or uncertain information only j- ; and therefore we can hardly expect consistent, much more critical, descriptions.

They appear, however, to have furnished us with very good grounds for believing that the Syrtis and Lake Tritonis communicated in former times ; and that the communication continued even to the * Major Rennell has noticed a parallel instance in our own country. “ There can be no doubt” (he observes) “ of the increase of the Goodwin (sand) at the present moment, and of its slow progression towards the state of firm land. Let those who doubt the facts here set forth attend to the changes at Ephesus, at Myriandrus, in the Gulf of Issus, and various other places.”

t In a note the author adds, “ possibly with a£n exception to Scylax as a professed guide to others. The observations of Polybius would probably, had they come down to us, have saved us much conjecture.”