BENGAZI. 335 suggested itself to us had we never visited Eengazi ; it must therefore be left to the discretion of our readers, to adopt it or not, as it may seem to deserve, on a reference to the local peculiarities we have mentioned.

With regard to the name of Tritonis, bestowed upon the lake in this passage, it is difficult to say whether the lake which Strabo mentions was actually called by that name ; or whether the geographer has confounded it with the Tritonis Palus (the Lake Lowdeah of Shaw), situated in the Lesser Syrtis, and which also contained an island, according to Herodotus.

But whatever may have been the proper name of the lake at Berenice which we seek to identify with the Tritonis of Strabo, it appears to us to answer remarkably well to the lake of that name which he mentions. We will therefore suggest, that the Tritonis in question and the lake which now communicates with the Harbour of Bengazi, are one and the same lake : that it was originally deep enough to admit the vessels of the ancients, and to have formed occasionally the island containing the temple of Venus, on the spot of rising ground already pointed out, where remains of ancient building are still observable : that a small spring of fresh water run« into the same lake which may possibly be the remains of the Lathon of Strabo, at its point of re-appearance and communication with the Harbour of the Hesperides ; and that the subterranean stream in the cavern between the lake and the mountains, which we have mentioned above, may also be the source of this river. When we add, that the gardens upon which we have remarked, are probably some of those called the Gar-