398 PTOLEMETA TO MERGE.

stations (or days’ journey), equal to two hundred and fifty Koman miles. From Barka to Alexandria — twenty-one stations, or five hundred and fifty M. P. From the promontory of Khanem (Cape Mesurata) to Barka — four hundred and eighty M. P. The intermediate places between Barca and Alexandria, and between Mesurata and Barka, are, at the same time, mentioned in detail ; but as few of them correspond with the existing names of places in the same routes we have no means of checking the numbers as they occur, or of reckoning the distance of any known places in its neighbourhood from the city of Barca described. If the distances, also, be taken in the aggregate, they will be found too considerable to fix the site of the city with any sufficient precision. Were the places of Aurar and Alhsal clearly decided upon we should have more available data; and particularly if distances had been given by Edrisi between Teuchira and Barca, and between Ptolemeta and the last-mentioned city. The other Arab accounts, which we allude to, of Barca, are as follows : — In the work of Azizi, as cited by Abulfeda, we are told that “ there are two mountains belonging to Barca, in which there is a great proportion of excellent soil, numerous springs of fresh water, and many tracts of cultivated land.” Provisions are mentioned as being at all times very cheap there, and the inhabitants exported wine, and pitch, extracted from the pine, to Egypt ; together with a great many head of cattle of a small breed.

This refers to the district or territory of Barca ; and the city of that name is described by the author just quoted as “ situated in an