102 
JOURNEY FROM 
sand-stone *, which may be (at a rough estimation) about an hun- 
dred feet above the level of the sea. This high land is divided 
into three distinct heads, or capes, and is described by Captain 
Lautier as having the appearance (from the sea) of three f hills 
in the form of as many islands. The low ground at the back 
and to the south-east of these capes is thickly covered with date- 
trees, but their summits are now bare of wood and destitute of 
any vegetation : the sand-stone in fact is fast crumbling away, and 
the height of the promontory is every day diminishing. The 
appearance of this triple cape coincided so well, in our estimation, with 
the description given by Strabo of the Cephalas Promontorium|, that 
we have not hesitated to pronounce it the same with that headland. 
It does not however form the precise point, or western extremity, of 
the gulf, which is in fact a low rocky projection, scarcely above the 
level of the sea, about four miles distant from the cape : but this point 
is too low to be remarked from the sea, and Strabo, when he observed 
the cape from his vessel, may well be excused for having over- 
looked it. 
The or Triaerorum Promontorium of Ptolemy is no 
* Dr. Della Celia has confounded the sand-hills with the promontory, the latter of 
which he asserts is composed entirely of sand ; they are however as distinct from each 
other as sand-stone may be said to be from sand. The sand-hills are, besides, at some 
distance from the sea, and the promontory immediately upon it. 
t II Capo Mesurata, a tre circa leghe di distanza, si mostra sotto 1’ apparenza di tre 
monticelli a foggia di ti-e isolotti — See Lautier’s Memoir, attached to the Viaggio da 
Tripoli, 8fc., by Della Celia. 
I Eit’ axqa v^rikn nau rrts /xeyaXnr ^uqlscos, aocXHai Se K.£^aXas' Lib. 17, § 18. 
