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JOURNEY FROM 
CHAPTER X. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE GULF AND SHORES OF THE GREATER SYRTIS, 
The Dimensions of the Gulf, according to Ancient Writers, considered, and compared with those 
resulting from the Observations of the Expedition — Difference in the Statements of the 
several Writers quoted — Reasons why a Difference may be expected in their Accounts 
Observations of Major Rennell on the Measurements of the Ancients — Ptolemy’s Outline of 
the Gulf more correct than any hitherto given — Number of Square Miles of Error in modern 
Charts of the Greater Syrtis — The Ideas of Ancient Writers (Herodotus excepted) with 
respect to the Nature and Resources of the Syrtis (the Territory, not the Gulf oi the Greater 
Syrtis is here meant) more erroneous than the Dimensions which have been assigned to the 
Gulf itself — The General Character of the Syrtis not that of a Sandy Plain — Incorrectness 
of the Arab Accounts of what is termed by them the Desert of Barka — Account of Herodotus 
considered — Apparent Accuracy of his Statements — Inferences drawn from them — Ancient 
Accounts of the Gulf of the Greater Syrtis, dimensions excepted, very correct — Accumulation 
of Soil on the Shores of the Gulf accounted for — Apparent Elevation of the General Level of 
the Syrtis — Advance of the Sea on the Northern Coast of Africa — Appearance of the Coast 
at Alexandria and Carthage consistent with that of the Shores of the Greater Syrtis and 
Cyrenaica — Observations of Major Rennell and Dr. Shaw on the Elevation of the Coast of 
Tunis, and the Advance of the Sea in that quarter — Observations of Lucan on the Level of 
the Greater Syrtis — Dangers of the Navigation of the Gulf of Syrtis considered — Inset into 
the Gulf still existing to a great extent — Flux and Reflux of the Sea mentioned by Strabo 
and Mela considered — Remarks on the Derivation of the term Syrtis. 
In considering the dimensions which have come down to us of the 
Greater Syrtis, those allotted to it by Strabo (in the seventeenth 
book) are so singularly inconsistent with each other, that there ap- 
pears to be no possible mode of reconciling the measurements he has 
given of its diameter, with those which he has in the same place 
ascribed to its circumference, without material alterations in the text. 
“ The circumference of the Greater Syrtis” (observes the geographer) 
