Vol. 67.] THE GEOLOGY OF CTRENA1CA. 611 



There does not seem to be the slightest physiographic evidence of 

 any considerable change in the rainfall or water-supply of Cyremiica 

 since the days of the Greek colonization in the seventh century b.c. ; 

 and the evidence furnished by the classical descriptions of the 

 country, as also the waterworks erected by the Romans, indicates 

 that the country was then under the same climatic conditions as 

 at present. 



J. P. Thrige, in his ' Res Cyrenensium ' 1819 (2nd ed. 1828), has 

 collected the classical records respecting Cyrenaica, and they indicate 

 that the climate of the country was much the same in ancient as in 

 modern times. There were probably more trees under the Romans, 

 as they were then more carefully preserved ; but the characteristic 

 products of the province, 6uch as wool, honey, wax, and corn, are 

 indicative rather of moorlands with a limestone soil, than of a 

 humid, wooded country. Plagues of locusts, insects characteristic 

 of arid plains, devastated the land then as they do now : thus, 

 in the year 125 b.c. they came in such swarms that accumulations 

 of their bodies along the shore are said to have caused a pestilence. 

 Other visitations are recorded, and they were so constant a danger 

 that a law, quoted by Thrige (paragraph 80), 



• made it obligatory for the people to wage an annual war against locusts, 

 destroying first the eggs, then the brood, and ultimately those that had 

 grown up, and imposed a penalty for negligence.' 



The waterworks, which are the most conspicuous remains of the 

 Roman occupation, also show that the country suffered from a scanty- 

 water-supply. Water was stored with great care, and Cyrene received 

 a supplement of water from some artificial roofed reservoirs at 

 Safsaf, about 6 miles distant in a straight line. The capacity of 

 these reservoirs was measured by Dr. Trotter ; the largest is about 

 960 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 12 feet deep ; and the whole of 

 them would have held about 1,500,000 gallons. If Cyrene had 

 had a population of 15,000, the Safsaf reservoirs would have 

 provided an allowance of only a gallon per head per day for three 

 months. It would not have been worth while building a long- 

 stone aqueduct to carry so small a quantity, if a considerable supply 

 had been available at Cyrene. ] 



Again, ancient Ptolemeta, according to Beechey, 2 had no springs, 

 and was dependent for water upon an aqueduct : whereas, if there 

 had been a reliable rainfall, wells in the ground behind the town 

 would have yielded a considerable supply. 



The ruins of ancient Greek and Roman buildings near all the 



1 It may be suggested that at the date of the first Greek colony the country 

 had a wetter climate than at present, and that the Roman water-supply works 

 mark the effort of the later colonists to maintain their hold over the country 

 despite the increasing desiccation ; but I can find no support for this 

 suggestion, either in the classical literature, or in the physiography of the 

 country. 



- F. W. & H. W. Beechey, ' Proceedings of the Expedition to explore the 

 Northern Coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward ' 1828, p. 361. See also 

 E.M. Smith & E. A.Porcher, ' History of... Discoveries at Cyrene ' 1864, p. 66. 



