TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
269 
Nasamones, who occupied the south-eastern coast of the Gulf * ; these 
people must therefore have been provided with water, though they 
were nearer to the sandy desert than the Nasamones ; and if we are 
told that, in consequence of their supplies being dried up, they were 
compelled to emigrate, and perished in their journey to the south- 
ward, we must at the same time conclude that, previous to this acci- 
dent, they had water enough to support them at home, though it 
might not have been very plentiful. On the whole, we may observe, 
without entering further into this subject, that the district of Barca, 
including all the country between Mesurata and Alexandria, neither 
is, nor ever was, so destitute and barren as it has been represented ; 
that the part of it which constitutes the Cyrenaica is capable of the 
highest degree of cultivation, and that many parts of the Syrtis afford 
excellent pasturage, while some of it is not only adapted to cultiva- 
tion, but does actually produce good crops of barley and dhurra. We 
may remark, at the same time, that the proportion of sand which is 
actually to be found in the Syrtis will by no means authorize us to call 
it a sandy region, and that the proportion of water which it actually 
possesses will not justify us in asserting that it is unprovided with 
that necessary. We may observe, too, that the number of serpents 
and venomous reptiles, so freely bestowed upon the Syrtis by Roman 
* Strabo seems to place the Nasamones farther inland, whither they were probably 
driven by the Cyreneans subsequent to the account of Herodotus. 
Ttiv Ss ev /SaSsi ^copccv rns ^vprEus xixi rns Yi-vp-nvaia.^ xa.ri’/pvat,') oi AiSvss 
■T[ocqa\u7tqov xat Tlqwrov /xsv oi Naffa/xa/VEy, etteitcc xJ/eXXoj xsu Ttvsr /aiTsXoi, iimra. 
rstga/xavTSf’ (Lib. 17. p. 838.) 
