Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/196

 180 LIBYA. N. : — Gannaria (Tavfapia &Kpa), probably Cape yon ; Soloentia (^oXuevria), Cape Bojador ; Arsinarium i^hpffivapiov), Cape Con-eiro, the westernmost point of the continent, lying between the mouths of the Paradus and the Stachir ; the headland of Eyssa- dium, Cape Blanco, a continuation of the moun- tain ridge of that name, and a few miles southward of Arsinarium; the promontories of Catharon (jh KaQapov ^Kpov), Cape Darca, near the mouth of the Nia, and of the Hesperides, celebrated in fable (^'Effwepov Kfpas, PtoL; Hesperion Ceras, Plin. v. 1. s. 1), the Cape Verde of the Portuguese : lastly, the term of Hanno's voyage, the basaltic rock en- titled the headland of Notium (Ndrou K^pas), Cape Roxo, or Red Cape, from the colour of its surface. Between the two last-mentioned projections lay the Hesperian bay ('Eo-Tre'pios k6ttos), which, owing to their misconception of the extent of this continent, tiie ancients regarded as the southern boundary of Libya, the point from which it crossed towards Asia, or where the great Southern Ocean commenced. While enumerating the mountains which con- cealed their springs, we have nearly exhausted the catalogue of the Libyan rivers which flow into the Atlantic. It is a consequence of the terraced con- formation of the interior, that the streams would, for the most part, take an easterly or a westerly direc- tion. Those which ran east were the tributaries of the lakes, morasses, and rivers of Aethiopia, and, with the exception of such as fed the Astapus and the Astaboras, have been scarcely explored. On the western side the most important were (Ptol. iv. 6. § 8) the Subus (SoDgos), the modern Sus, and combining, if not the same, with the Chretes (Xpirris) and the Xion (Hiwr) (Scylax, p. .53), had its source in Mt. Sagapola, and entered the Atlantic below the fur- thest western projection of the Greater AtLas. Mt. Mandrus gave birth to the Salathus, at the mouth of which stood a town of the same name; to the Chusarius (Xouffapios), apjiarently the Cosenus of Polybius (ap. Plin. v. 1. s. 1); to the Ophiodes ('0(J)i&j5tjs) and Novius (Nowos), between the head- lands of Gannarium and Soloeis; and, lastly, the Massa or Masasat. (Polyb. /. c.) In Mount Caphas arises a more considerable stream than any of the above-mentioned, the modern Rio de Ouro, the ancient Daradus (AapaSos, Aapdr), which contained crocodiles, and discliarged itself into the Sinus Magnus. The appearance of the crocodile in this river, and the dark population which inhabited its banks in common with those of the Niger, led many of the ancient geographers to imagine that the Nile, wherein similar phenomena were observed, took a westerly course S. of Jleroe, and, crossing the con- tinent, emptied itself a second time into the sea in the extreme west. The Aethiopes Hesperii were among the consequences of this fiction, and were believed to be of the same race with the Aethiopians of the Nile. Next in order southward was the Stachir (Sraxfip), which rose in Mt. Eyssadius, and, after forming the Lake Clonia, proceeded in a SE. direction to the bay of the Hesperides. The Stachir is probably represented by the present St. Antonio river, or Rio de Guaon, and seems to answer to the Salsus of Polybius (o/?. Plin. I. c). The same bay receives the waters of the Nia, the Bambotus of Polybius, and the modem Senegal. The river-horse, as well as the crocodile, inhabit its streams, and the hides of the former were ex- ported by the neighbouring tribe of Daratae to Car- thage. The Masitnoms, the present Gambia, de- LIBYA. scends into the Atlantic from the Theon Ochema, a little N. of the Hippodrome of the Aethiopians ('In-7r(55po;Uos AWiojrias), or Cape Roxo, with which terminates the geographer Ptolemy's Itinerary of the Libyan coast. He mentions, indeed, a few rivers in the interior which have no outlet to the sea, but form vast inland lakes. These are, probably, either tributaries of the Niger, or the upper portion of the arms of the Niger itself ; but the course of the streams that flow southward to Nigritia and the Bight of Benin belongs rather *:o modern than to ancient geography. It is worthy of notice, how- ever, that rumours at least of the dimensions of the Niger must have reached the ears of the old geo- graphers (Agathem. ii. 10; Plin. v. 1. s. 1), since they ascribe to the Ger or Gir {Tab. Peuting. Girin) a course of more than 300 miles, with a further curvature to the N. of 100, where it ends in the lake Chelonides. The direct mainstream was re- presented as diving underground, reappearing on the surf-ice, and finally discharging itself into a lake called Nuba. Libya, indeed, " is a region of extensive lakes ; of which there appear to be a great number on the lowlands of its east coast, in which many of the rivers from the edge of the table-land terminate." (Somerville, Physical Geog. vol. ii. p. 9.) In Libya N. of the equator the following were known to the ancients: — The Tritonis (Aeschyl. Eumen. 289; Pindar, Pyth. iv. 36 ; Scylax, p.49'; Herod, iv. 178) ; the Lake of the Hesperides (Strab. xviii. p. 836) ; the Libya Palus, which was connected with the Niger by one of its tributaries ; the Clonia, near the eastern flank of the Mount Eyssadium : the Nigritis, into which the upper portion of the Nigir flowed, probably the present Dibheh of the Arabs, or the Black-Water, SW. of Timhuctoo : the Nuba, in which the river Ger terminates, and which answers to Lahe Tchad, or Nou in Bornou, and whose di- mensions almost entitle it to the denomination of a fresh-water sea ; and lastly, the cluster of lakes named Chelonides, perhaps the modem Fitire, into which an arm of the Ger flows, and which are surrounded with jungle and pastures celebrated for their herds of elephants. Salt-water lakes abound on the northern extremity of the Sahara, and the salt obtained from them has been iu every age an article of barter with the south, where that necessary of life is wholly wanting. It is obtained either from these lakes, which, dried up by the summer heat, leave behind a vast quantity of salt, covering ex- tensive patches of the earth, or from large beds, or layers, which frequently extend fur many miles, and rise into hills. The inhabitants of Nigritia purchase salt with gold-dust. A scarcity of salt in Kashna and Timbuctoo is equivalent to a famine in other lands. At such times the price of salt becomes so extravagant, that Leo Africanus (p. 250) saw an ass's load sold at Timbuctoo for eighty ducats. The neighbourhood of the lakes is also celebrated for the number and luxuriance of its date trees. To the borderers of the Desert the date tree is what the bread-fmit tree is to the South Sea islanders. Its fruit is food for both men and cattle : it was capable of being preserved for a long time, and conveyed to great distances ; while, from the sap or fruit of the tree (Piennell, Exped. of Cyrus, p. 120) was extracted a liquor equally intoxicating with wine. Populatian. — Herodotus (iv. 168 — 199) distin- guishes four main elements in the population of Libya; — (1) the Libyans, (2) the Aethiopians