BENGAZI. 
359 
dreary swamps and insipidity of the Syrtis, where only one tree had 
been seen to rear itself in a space of more than four hundred 
miles. 
It could not, therefore, he contrast that made the vallies of Ptole- 
meta appear to us in such captivating forms and colours— it was the 
simple impression which Nature’s favourite spots never fail to create 
on the imagination — heightened only, perhaps, by the solitude of the 
scene, and the wild, romantic elegance of its character. There are 
beauties which may be felt, but cannot be described ; and the charm 
of romantic scenery is one of them. 
We will not therefore attempt any other description of the eastern 
valley of Ptolemeta, than by remarking that it rises gradually from 
the sea, winding through forests of pine and flow^ering shrubs, (which 
thicken as the sides of the mountain on which they grow become 
higher and more abrupt,) till it loses itself in the precipitous part of 
the range which bounds it to the southward, and which presents a dark 
barrier of thickly-planted pines, shooting up into the blue sky above 
them. The windings of the valley greatly add to its beauty, and the 
scenery increases in interest at every turn, in tracing it up tow" ards the 
mountains in which it loses itself. Sometimes the path is impeded by 
trees, which throw their branches across it, leaving only a narrow pas- 
sage beneath them ; and sometimes, on emerging from this dark and 
difficult approach, a broad sweep of verdant lawn will suddenly pre- 
sent itself, fenced in, apparently, on all sides, by liigh walls of various- 
coloured pines, rising one above the head of the other, in all the gran- 
deur of uniformity. On reaching the opposite end of this verdant 
