612 THE GEOLOGY OF CYRENAICA. [Nov. I9II. 



chief existing springs show that 2000 years ago those localities 

 were the most important centres in the country, and that con- 

 siderable springs were no more numerous than they are now. We 

 saw no evidence that the springs had much larger volumes in 

 classical times ; and that the springs at Cyrene are as abundant as 

 ever is asserted by the ' Mediterranean Pilot ' (4th edit., vol. ii, 

 1 905, p. 325). The country, moreover, in classical times suffered 

 from famines following drought, as still happens occasionally, as 

 just before the visit of Bruce to Benghazi in 1766. x 



That the region to the south of Cyrenaica was arid in classical 

 times is shown by the fact that Cyrenaica was the starting-point of 

 caravan-routes to the Oases of Aujila and of Siwa, through which 

 then, as now, passed one of the chief caravan-routes from Cyrenaica 

 into Egypt. That these routes traversed a desert country is evident 

 from the statement of Strabo, 2 according to whom, behind Cyrenaica 

 and the Syrtis, is a very sterile and dry tract in the possession of the 

 Libyans ; and Aujila and Ammon (that is, Siwa) were then oases 

 well supplied with water and productive of palm-trees. How little 

 the geography of Cyrenaica has altered since the time of Strabo is 

 shown by his statement that the country behind the coast produces 

 trees for the width of 100 stadia, 3 and then for another 100 stadia 

 the land is only sown, but from excessive heat does not grow rice. 

 Hence, the tree-belt in Cyrenaica was then about 11| miles wide, 

 and to the south of it was a belt, also 11^ miles wide, of treeless 

 plains producing dry cereals. The forests may have been thicker 

 in classical times than they are now, but the forest-belt was ap- 

 parently no wider. 



That Cyrenaica in pre-classical times had a heavier rainfall 

 seems to me probable from the aspect of some of the old valleys, 

 which, from their curves and shape, I should suspect to have been 

 carved during a period of greater rainfall ; but this period, though 

 doubtless Pleistocene, was probably pre-classical, and even earlier 

 than the time of the people who made the stone implements which 

 are scattered abundantly in several districts of Cyrenaica. 



VII. The Composition of the Soils. 



A series of analyses of the soil of Cyrenaica by Dr. J. Trotter is 

 tabulated in the Eeport of the Expedition (pp. 28-36). As that 

 report may not be easily accessible, some of the analyses are 

 here reprinted. Nos. I-III illustrate the sedentary soils ; nos. 

 IV-XI the transported soils. 



1 E. L. Play fair, 'Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria & Tunis' 

 1877, p. 285. 



2 The Geography of Strabo ' translated by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer, 

 vol. iii (1857) p. 294. 



3 The stadium, according to Smith's 'Dictionary of Greek & Roman 

 Antiquities' (]845, p. 344) is C>()6 feet 9 inches English. 100 stadia = there- 

 fore about 11^ miles. 



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