TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
107 
To the eastward*, a tenantless and desolate waste, without a single 
object rising from its surface, lies stretched in one long, unbroken, 
line, as far as the eye can range. Not a single tree or shrub is on 
that side to be seen ; not a single house or tent, not a single human 
being, or animal of any description. 
In fact the effect of the Greater Syrtis, from this place, is that 
of a dreary moor — a wide tract of level, waste land — without any- 
thing to distinguish one part of it from another but the windings 
of a marsh, which threads its dark surface, and is lost in different 
parts of the unbroken horizon f. 
Two days before our departure from Mesurata, a strong scirocco 
wind set in, and brought such myriads of locusts, that the air was lite- 
rary darkened by them. The inhabitants in consequence remained 
out all night, keeping up a continued shouting and firing of mus- 
kets and pistols, to prevent them from settling on the gardens and 
cultivated lands. They who were not engaged in this occupation, 
employed themselves in collecting the locusts which had been beaten 
down, and carrying them off in baskets as articles of provision : so 
great was the quantity collected on this occasion, that we observed 
many asses, heavily laden with these insects, driven into the town 
f * The south-eastward would be more correct, for the coast there begins to trend to 
the southward. 
t A more comfortless scene can scarcely be imagined than is presented by the open- 
ing of this celebrated region, so little known at any period of history. The opinion 
which the ancients appear to have formed of it may be inferred from the description of 
Lucan, in his account of Cato’s march across it (Pharsalia, book 9.) ; but it will be 
seen, as we advance into the regions of the Syrtis, that this description is more poetical 
than just. 
