xl INTRODUCTION. 



incredulity, We were faft advancing to the celebrated epoch 

 of the man in the pint-bottle, and from that time to be as 

 .abfurdly incredulous as we were then the revcrfe, and with 

 the fame degree of reafon. 



Ras Sem is five long days journey fouth from Bengazi; it 

 has no water, except a fpring very difagreeable to the tafle, 

 that appears to be impregnated with alum, and this has 

 given it the name it bears of Ras Sem, or the Fountain of 

 Poifon, from its bitternefs. The whole remains here con- 

 fift in the ruins of a tower or fortification, that feems to be 

 a work full as late as the time of the Vandals. How or 

 what ufe they made of this water I cannot pofiibly guefs ; 

 they had no other at the diftance of two days journey. I 

 was not fortunate enough to difcover the petrified men and 

 horfes, the women at the churn, the little children, the cats, 

 the dogs, and the mice, which his Barbarian excellency af- 

 fured Sir Hans Sloane exifted there : Yet, in vindication of 

 his Excellency, I muft fay, that though he propagated, yet he 

 did not invent this falfehood ; the Arabs who conducted me 

 maintained the fame ftories to be true, till I was within two 

 hours of the place, where I found them to be falfe. I 

 faw indeed mice *, as they are called, of a very extraordi- 

 nary kind, having nothing of petrifaction about them, 

 but agile and active, fo to partake as much of the bird as 

 the beaft. 



Approaching now the fea-coaft I came to Ptolometa, the 

 ancient Ptolemais J, the work of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the 



walls 



* Jerboa, fee a figure of it in the Appendix. J Itin. Anion, p. 4. 



