MERGE TO GYRENE. 519 to its influence to keep the head well covered if they would avoid a coup-de-soleil. The force of habit will at the same time enable Europeans to encounter much more heat than they would venture to subject themselves to on first arriving from more temperate regions : we found that we could walk about the whole of the day (which we were obliged to do in making our plans) without feehng more than what may be termed inconvenience ; and the greatest annoyance was the reflection from the ground on our eyes and lips, which the masses of white stone among which we had to scramble, in examining and taking measurements of the ruins, made stronger than is felt in cultivated places : these become so hot from ten or eleven o’clock till sunset that the atmosphere about them is like that of an oven ; the heat which is reflected from them absolutely scorches, and the eyes of persons lopg exposed to its influence would probably suffer materially. For the rest, the heat may be borne without prejudice (especially through the folds of an ample turban) unless a greater freedom of diet be indulged in than is prudent in any hot climate. We saw very few serpents in the Pentapolis, and very few scorpions, even among the ruins, where they are generally fond of hiding themselves; but the grass land, at Cyrene in particular, is much infested by a dark-coloured centiped, almost black, with red feelers and legs ; we usually found half a dozen of them in taking up the mats in our tents, and had great difficulty in killing them. Any part which chanced to be separated from the rest of the body would continue to run about as if nothing had happened, and were the reptile even divided into twenty pieces