666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sjjurs of the main chain of the Atlas, partly in the province of Con- 

 stantine in Algeria, and partly in Tunis. Its western extremity is in 

 latitude 34 30' K, longitude 5 65' E,, and it extends thence east- 

 ward two hundred and thirty-five miles to within about thirteen miles 

 of the foot of the Gulf of Cabes, or Gabes, in the Mediterranean, an- 

 ciently the Lesser Syrtis, from which it is now separated by an isth- 

 mus of sand. The breadth of the depression is about thirty-seven 

 miles. Within these limits lie several connected lake-beds, called by 

 the Arabs sJiotts or sehJcas, shott signifying jjroperly the bottom of a 

 lake left dry by evaporation, and sehha a saline marsh. The largest 

 of these are Shotts Melrir, or Melgig, whose eastern extremity is 

 called Es-Selam, El-Rharsa, or Gharsa, and El-Jerid, or Fejej. About 

 one-half is in French territory, the Tunisian boundary line cutting the 

 western bank of Shott El-Rharsa. 



This great depression is supposed to mark the site of the lake of 

 Triton, or Tritonis, mentioned by Herodotus, Scylax, Pomponius 

 Mela, Ptolemy, and other ancient writers, and around which were 

 localized the Greek divinities Poseidon and Athena, and the Argo- 

 nautic myth. Into it was driven the good ship Argo, when blown 

 from her course around the Malean promontory by an adverse wind. 

 Jason, lost among the shallows, propitiated the local divinity, Triton, 

 son of Poseidon, by presenting him with the brazen tripod, whereupon 

 the god, filled with prophetic heat, foretold that a hundred Grecian 

 cities would spring u]) around Tritonis whenever a descendant of the 

 Argo's crew should seize and bear away the precious gift. Through 

 the foresight of the subtle Libyans, who hid the tripod, the prophesy 

 was unfulfilled, but many noble cities were afterward built north and 

 east of Tritonis, and along the coast of Syrtis Minor. Indeed, so 

 numerous were they, and so flourishing as trade-centres, that the 

 country was named Emporia. All the ancient writers agree in prais- 

 ing it for its wonderful riches and fertility. Says Scylax : " This 

 region, which is occupied by Libyans, is most magnificent and fertile ; 

 it abounds in fine cattle, and its inhabitants are most beautiful and 

 wealthy." It was within the dominion of Carthage, and here were 

 the storehouses and granaries from which Rome's great rival supplied 

 her troops. 



But now all is changed. The drying up of the ancient sea has 

 deprived the land of its moisture, and the once fertile plain between 

 the mountains and the north bank of the shotts is, with the exception 

 of a few oases, a sterile waste. Nothing i-emains to tell of former 

 greatness but ruins, which are said to be scattered over the country 

 far up into the mountains. 



Herodotus, the most ancient writer by whom Tritonis is men- 

 tioned, says that it was fed by the great river Triton ; but modern 

 research has failed to identify it, there being now but a few rivulets 

 which enter it from the mountains on the north, or lose themselves in 



