TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
191 
of thePhilagni* might be looked for, had they still been in existence, 
the most eligible situation which would present itself for a boundary 
post is certainly that of Bengerw^d ; and this, as we have stated, is 
so extremely well calculated for such a purpose, that we can scarcely 
suppose it could have been overlooked by the king of Egypt when 
he fixed the new limits of his dominions. 
It will be unnecessary to trouble our readers with any protracted 
discussion of a point which admits of no positive proof ; and we will 
leave others to decide, without further remark, how far the meaning 
of the term employed by Strabo may be extended, in con- 
sideration of the reasons which we have alleged. 
On leaving Wady Shegga we passed over a tract of red sand col- 
lected in little hiUocks about the plain, which were, however, as well 
as the spaces between them, occasionally covered with vegetation. 
We here saw some gazelles, hares, and jackalls, and a good many jer- 
boas, and fired at a snake about six feet in length, which the Arabs 
told us swelled out when much irritated, and was very venomous : 
he however escaped slightly grazed into a hole in the sand. This 
was the only snake of any size which we had seen in the Syrtis ; it 
was of a very dark colour, and about as thick as a man’s wrist. 
Immediately behind the promontory which we have mentioned above, 
* We have already stated, on the authority of Pliny, that the Philaenean Altars were 
of sand ; and as they must be looked for in this neighbourhood, we have supposed them 
to have been erected in the sandy tract which we shall shortly mention in our progress 
eastward from Bengerwkd. For had they been raised on a spot where other materials 
could have been easily obtained, it is not probable that any so unstable as sand would 
have been used for the commemoration of so noble an action as that which occasioned 
their erection. 
