1 8 Of the Petrified City, &c. 



where I faw it^ and found it to be only an Echitntes of the 

 Difcoid or ^oit Kind ; of- the fame Fafhion with one I had 

 lately found and brought with me from the Deferts o^Marah ' ; 

 the Figure of which, I like wife fhewed him, in the Lithofhy- 

 Tmnks ^-^^lacium ' Britannicum. We may therefore reafonably concl ud e. 



Branches of . 



Trees with that there is nothing; to be found at RasSem, (inafinuch as no- 



theScA.'w and *-' 



rheirPrickies thing clfc has been brought from thence ,) unlefs it be the 



are the only »-' ° iriT»-V- 



Petrificati- Truuks of Trecs, Echimtes, and luch retrmcations, as have 

 sem. been difcovered at other Places. Becaufe Cats and Mice and 



Birds, (had there been really any fuch Things,) were as porta- 

 ble and might have been as ealily conveyed and brought away 

 from thence, as Branches of the Palm Trees, onEchinites. 

 This is con- Mr. Le Maire\ Inquiries, which, we find, were fupported 

 rious Ac- by the Promife and Performance of greatRe wards, have brought 

 were 'given nothing further to Light. He could never learn, after fend- 

 thor, con- ing a Number of Perfons, exprefsly and at a great Expence, 

 Place. to make Difcoveries and bring along with them what Curiofi- 

 ties foever they met with; that any Traces of Walls or Build- 

 ings, or Animals, or Utenfils, were ever to be feen, within 

 the Verge of thefe Petrifications. The like Account I had 

 from a Sicilian Renegado, who was the Janizary that attended 

 me, whilft I was in Egypt: and, as he had been a Soldier of 

 Tripoly, in his earlier Years, he afliired me, that he had been 

 feveral Times at Ras Sem. This I had confirmed again, in 

 my Return from the Levant, by the Interpreter ' of the Brit ij/j 

 Fadory at Tunis ; who was likewife a Sicilian Renegado, and 

 being the Lihertui or Freedman of the Bafhaid/ ofTripoly, was 

 preferred by him to be theBej or Vice-Roy of the Province of 

 Darna ; where Ras Sem was immediately under his Jurif- 

 di6tion. His Account was likewife the fame •, neither had he 

 ever feen, in his frequent Journeys over this Diftri6t, (though 

 he had been formerly told to the contrary,) any other Petri- 

 fications, than what are above-mentioned. So that the Petri- 

 fied City, with it's Walls, Caftle, Streets, Shops, Cattle, In- 



1 See the Figure of it, p. yo. N°. 40. of the Exccrpta. 



2 This is called, Eclibiites cljpeatusfive D'lfcum refcrens, Pentapbjllo'ides, Lith. Brit. ClafT. 

 VI. Tab. 13. N°. 971 



3 The Account mentioned above, (zndTrav. p. 379. Not. i.) of a whole Caravan be- 

 ing furprized and fuffocated by a Hot Windi was given me by this Perfon ; who, upon his 

 Difgrace with the Bafhaw, fled into Egypt; and taking an uncommon Road, by Salbah, 

 for Fear of being purfued, fell ie there with this Scene of preferved Bodies. 



habitants 



