20 The Gorgon i^ Domus^, ^c. 



tion at all concerning it, before the laft or the preceeding Cen- 

 tury'. The Claffick Authors, whether Poets, Geographers or 

 Hiftorians, have not, in the feveral Accounts they have left 

 us of the Oyrenaica and the adjacent Provinces, taken the leaft 

 Notice of this Scene of Petrifications. Such a Tale, whether 

 real or imaginary, would, in a particular Manner, have been as 

 highly acceptable, as it was fuitable to the poetical Invention 

 oi Lman\ who appears to have been well acquainted with 

 the Natural Hiftory of this Part ol Libya. It is very probable 

 therefore, from the Nature and Quality of thefe Countries, 

 whofe Surface is perpetually changing, by the lliifting of the 

 Sands ; that either the Trees ' and Echini above-mentioned 

 were not, in former Ages, fufficiently laid open by the Winds; 

 or, that the Defcription of them, was not thought worthy to 

 be tranfmitted to Pofterity. 

 The Gorio- 1. It may be objected in the Second Place, that the Coun- 

 were not fi- try of the Govgons, is fo far from being fituated, where we 

 Part of I.;- find Ras Senij in or adjacent to the Cyrenaica\ that we are 

 the' Atianticto look for it in or beyond the moft weftern and extreme Parts 

 of Libya. For Lucan ^ defcribes it to lye under Mount Atlas , 



1 The firft Relation we have of the Petrified City, is given us !iy M.uun a Baumgarten 

 in hh Peregrin at'io, publi/h'd in i J94. though he begun hisTravels in i J07. and confequcntly 

 muft have colleded his Materials, a Number of Years, before they were made publick. He 

 was informed, as he tells us, that in the Road from Tripoly (of Sjr'u) to Mecca, there was a 

 City, whole Inhabitants, Cattle and Utenfils were turned into Stone. But if this Petrified 

 City be the fame with Ras Sem, then Baumgarten mufl have miltaken Tripoly in Sjria, for 

 Tripolj in Barbary ; whereby the Stories will accord. Yet, if they were the lame Story, it 

 is much, that, l"o ftrange and marvellous as it was accounted to have been at that Time, 

 i. e. in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, it fliould have laid dormant 'till about the 

 Middle of the Laft j when it was talked of as a Miracle and Matter of Fadt that had lately 

 happened. This we learn from Mr. Fttton's Letter to Sir Kenelm Digby, mentioned above : 

 from Kircher's MundusSubterr. ut fupra : from S. C/^r/^e's Defcription &c. 



2 We have juft fuch another Scene (though more difperfed) of petrified Branches and 

 Trunks of Trees, of various Sizes, (and probably of £W«»» and their Prickles too, if they 

 were carefully looked after) upon the Ifthmus betwixt Cairo and Suez.. Thefe too, no lels 

 thzn thok zt Ras Sem, were, no doubt, originally covered with Sand, their properMrffn^:; 

 which the Winds, in proccfs of Time, have blown away and removed ; filling up, in all 

 Probability, by thefe Depredations from the Surface, the Amuis Trajatius, the Fojfa Regum, 

 (or Channel that was cut betwixt the Nile and the Red Sea) and no fmall Part of the Nor- 

 thern Extremity of the Red Sea itlelf. The Author of The Defcription of the Eaji &c. Vol. I. 

 p. 131. gives another Account of thefe Petrifications. I do not kno^f, fays he, whether 

 it may be looked upori as a probable Conje^nre, that the People travelling in thefe P.trts and carrying 

 feme Wood with them for their Ufe, (this is ufually in very I'mall Chips, and not in Branches, 

 fuch as are found here ;) might leave it behind when they approach' d towards the great City, and, 

 that having been covered with Sand, it might petrifie ; and the Sand be after%i-'ards blown awaj : 

 though indeed I faw one Piece, (and there are a great Number) that feem'd to have been a large 

 Body of a Tree, (which confequcntly could not be portable.) 



3 Fmbus extremis Libya ubi fervida tellus 

 Accipit Octanum demtfo Sole cakntem. 



upon 



