TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
261 
in modern charts, as well as the inlet called the Gulf of Zuca, which 
we have stated does not exist, are neither of them laid down in it at 
all. It may therefore be said, that the true character of the gulf is 
much better preserved in the loose outline of Ptolemy than in any 
other of which we are aware. Whatever may be the reasons which 
have induced modern geographers to introduce into the Gulf of 
Syrtis the errors which we have alluded to, it is certain that the 
best chart which they have hitherto produced of it must undergo a 
correction of ninety miles in longitude, and upwards of thirty miles 
in latitude, that is to say, it must part with nearly six thousand 
square miles of ground, before it will be consistent with the truth. 
Should we pass from the measurements to the general character 
of the Syrtis, we shall find that if the ancient authorities have erred 
in their dimensions of it, they have been no less deceived with regard 
to its nature and resources. The whole country from Bengazi to 
Mesurata appears to have been generally considered by the writers oi 
antiquity as a dreary tract of sand, without water or vegetation, and 
swarming with venomous serpents. But we have already shewn that 
there are spots in this tract where vegetation is very luxuriant, and 
where water may be readily procured ; and although the extent of 
marshy ground is in many places considerable, yet the proportions 
between the barren and the productive parts of the Syrtis are not so 
little in favour of the latter as appears to have been generally 
imagined. The whole tract is so thinly inhabited, that a very trifling 
portion of it only is cultivated ; but this circumstance is owing more 
to the character of the Bedouins who frequent it, and to the govern- 
