Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/55

 TERRITORY NEAR THE SYETIS. 37 maritime region north of this, constituting the projecting bosom of the African coast from the island of Platea (Gulf of Bomba) on the east to Hesperides (Bengazi) on the west, is of a totally different character ; covered with mountains of considerable elevation, which reach their highest point near Kyrene, inter spersed with productive plain and valley, broken by frequent ravines which carry off the winter torrents into the sea, and never at any time of the year destitute of water. It is this latter advantage that causes them to be now visited every sum- mer by the Bedouin Arabs, who flock to the inexhaustible Foun- tain of Apollo and to other parts of the mountainous region from Kyrene to Hesperides, when their supply of water and herbage fails in the interior: 1 and the same circumstance must have assign to it ; and the authority of Herodotus, without citing any other, would be amply sufficient to prove that this tract of country not only was no desert, but was at all times remarkable for its fertility The ira pression left upon our minds, after reading the account of Herodotus, would be much more consistent with the appearance and peculiarities of both, in their actual state, than that which would result from the description of any succeeding writer The district of Barka, including all the country between Mesurata and Alexandria, neither is, nor ever was, so des- titute and barren as has been represented : the part of it which constitutes the CyrenaSca is capable of the highest degree of cultivation, and many parts of the Syrtis afford excellent pasturage, while some of it is not onlj adapted to cultivation, but does actually produce good crops of barley an dhurra." ( Captain Beechey, Expedition to Northern Coast of Africa, ch. > pp. 263, 2f>5, 267, 269 : comp. ch. xi, p. 321.) 1 Justin, xiii, 7. "Amoenitatem loci et fontium ubertatem." Captaia Beechey notices this annual migration of the Bedouin Arabs : " Teucheira (on the coast between Hesperides and Barka) abounds in wells of excellent water, which are reserved by the Arabs for their summer consumption, and only resorted to when the more inland supplies are exhausted : at other times it is uninhabited. Many of the excavated tombs are occupied as dwelling-houses by the Arabs during their summer visits to that part of the coast." (Beechey, Exp. to North. Afric. ch. xii, p. 354 ) And about the wide mountain plain, or table-land of Merge, the site of the ancient Barka, " Tb.3 water from the mountains inclosing the plain settles in pools and laVes in different parts of this spacious valley ; and affords a C^H 'tant supplj, during the summer months, to the Arabs who frequent it.'' (ch xiii. p. 390.) The red earth which Captain Beechey observed in this plain is noticed by Herodotus in regard to Libya (ii, 12). Stephan. Bya. notices also the bricks used in building (v, BapKr/). l)erna. too, to th