MERGE TO GYRENE. 
497 
when this was impracticable, they were drawn up on the beach. 
We may believe at the same time, that what art could effect in the 
flourishing periods of Cyrene was done for the improvement and the 
security of its port, as we find it to have been with regard to the 
defence of the town*. Extensive remains of building, apparently 
the foundations of a quay, are still visible, stretching out from the 
beach into the sea, at the depth of a few feet under water. Some 
quarries, which have been formed in the rock to the north-eastward 
of the town, are also now under water ; and the insulated tomb, which 
forms so striking an object in the view we have given of Apollonia, 
is always surrounded by the sea when the wind sets in strong from 
the northward f. Other tombs on the beach are likewise filled on 
these occasions ; as well as some large cisterns to the north-eastward of 
the town, through which the water roars with a noise like thunder, 
and dashes up through the apertures formed in them above. The 
cisterns here alluded to were probably appropriated to the use of 
the vessels in the harbour, which might have been watered from 
them very conveniently ; and they might at all times have been 
kept filled with excellent water by means of the aqueduct mentioned 
above. We have already noticed the encroachments of the sea 
upon the land, which we ourselves have had occasion to observe in 
several parts of the coast from Tripoly to Eengazi, as well as those 
* The port of Apollonia is mentioned by Scylax, in conjunction with that of Naustath- 
mos, as having been secure against all weathers ; and his description of the little rocky 
islands and projecting points in this neighbourhood is, even at the present day, very correct. 
t We are sorry to say that this view, with some others, which we could have wished 
to introduce, have been unavoidablv omitted. 
