TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
71 
must have been sadly at variance with his assertions, had he really 
meant to bestow upon Byzacium so much more than he has stated 
it to contain 
The region of the Cinyphus has still the same peculiarities which 
it has been stated to possess by Herodotus ; there we still find the 
rich and dark-coloured soil, and the abundance of water which he 
mentions : but every thing degenerates in the hand of the Arab, 
and the produce of the present day bears no proportion to that 
which the historian- has recorded. The average rate of produce of 
this fine tract of country (so far, at least, as we could learn from the 
Arabs who inhabit it) is now scarcely more than ten for one ; and 
the lands in the neighbourhood of Zeliten and Mesurata are the 
only places cultivated to the eastward of the Cinyphus. The pro- 
duce, in grain, is principally barley, with a moderate proportion only 
of wheat ; but the date-tree and the ohve are very generally distri- 
buted, and their crops are extremely abundant. We were informed 
that there was usually a considerable overplus of dates, olive-oil, and 
barley, both at Mesurata and Zehten ; and that the Arabs of the 
western parts of the Syrtis draw their principal supphes from the 
former of these places. 
The country to the west of the Cinyphus is, to all appearance, 
* The interpx-etation which follows (in this part of Signor Della Celia’s work) of a 
passage which he has quoted from Scylax, and the adoption which he there proposes of 
the word itoraf/^s instead of woXir, do not seem to rest, we fear, on any better foundation. 
(See Viaggio da Tripoli, &c., p. 48 — 9.) 
The concluding words sri Se sgn/xof, rather appear to relate to the desert tract between 
Lebida and Tagiura, than to the country in the neighbourhood of the Cinyphus. 
