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JOURNEY FROM 
time of Ptolemy. We think it equally probable that the river 
Triton flowed into the lake, and that the island called by some 
Triton, by Herodotus, Phla, together with the temple of Minerva, 
(in which the Triton is said to have deposited Jason’s tripod) was 
situated near the mouth of it : moreover, that the island in ques- 
tion is now a part of the sandy plain in which the rivulet of Ham- 
mah, the supposed river of Triton, loses itself. For it appears to 
us that the difference between the present state of things, at this 
place, and the ancient description of the lake and Syrtis, may be 
reconciled, by merely adverting to the changes that have taken 
place on other sandy shores ; and more particularly at the head of a 
gulf where the tide exerts its greatest power of casting up the sand 
to a higher point. That which has happened at the head of the Fed 
Sea may be adduced in point ; and, as the shore of the Syrtis is 
much flatter than the other, the operation has probably gone on 
with greater rapidity.” 
Lucan (as Major Fennell has justly observed) “ appears to believe 
that the bottom of the Syrtis” (that is, the Greater Syrtis) “ was 
growing firmer, and the water shallower ; and surmises that it may 
hereafter become dry and solid.” “ \That changes (he continues), 
“ in point of form and extent, they may have undergone, or if any, 
we know not : but it is certain they have hitherto preserved their 
original properties.” 
We insert below the lines of Lucan alluded to, from Fowes 
translation*. 
* When Nature’s hand the first formation tried, 
When seas from land she did at first divide, 
1 he 
