PTOLEMETA TO MERGE. 401 already been identified with the ancient port of Barca, is extremely favourable to this supposition. Two ravines, one of which is an extremely good road, lead up directly to it from Ptolemeta ; and the distance of any town, which might be built upon its plain, from the sea would correspond sufficiently well with that which we have quoted from Scylax. The peculiarities of soil which are attributed by Arab writers to Barca, are at the same time observable in the soil of the plain of Merge, which is of a decided reddish colour, and stains the clothes of those who lie down upon it, as we have occasion to know by experience. Again, one account says, that “ six miles from Barca is a mountain and the ranges of mountains which inclose the plain (or valley) of Merge are also six miles distant from each other. Honey is also found in the valleys leading to Merge, as it is said to have been in those leading to Barca; and the Arabs are still in the habit of extracting a kind of resin, or turpentine, from the fir, which might be the “ kidran” of the writers we have quoted. These are all of them vague proofs, but, in the absence of better, we are content to receive them in corroboration of the idea that Merge is the plain intended by the writers in question ; although, after all, it does not absolutely follow that the town described by them as Barca should be clearly established as the ancient town of Barca required.

The peculiarities ascribed to the territory of Barca — its numerous springs, its excellent soil, its large supplies of cattle, its various kinds of fruit trees, are all of them observable in the mountainous districts of the Cyrenaica ; and there can be no doubt that these tracts are