PTOLEMETA TO MERGE. 
401 
already been identified with the ancient port of Barca, is extremely 
favourable to this supposition. Two ravines, one of which is an 
extremely good road, lead up directly to it from Ptolemeta ; and the 
distance of any town, which might be built upon its plain, from the 
sea would correspond sufficiently well with that which we have 
quoted from Scylax. The peculiarities of soil which are attributed 
by Arab writers to Barca, are at the same time observable in the 
soil of the plain of Merge, which is of a decided reddish colour, and 
stains the clothes of those who lie down upon it, as we have occasion 
to know by experience. Again, one account says, that “ six miles 
from Barca is a mountain and the ranges of mountains which 
inclose the plain (or valley) of Merge are also six miles distant from 
each other. Honey is also found in the valleys leading to Merge, as 
it is said to have been in those leading to Barca; and the Arabs are 
still in the habit of extracting a kind of resin, or turpentine, from 
the fir, which might be the “ kidran” of the writers we have quoted. 
These are all of them vague proofs, but, in the absence of better, we 
are content to receive them in corroboration of the idea that Merge 
is the plain intended by the writers in question ; although, after all, 
it does not absolutely follow that the town described by them as 
Barca should be clearly established as the ancient town of Barca 
required. 
The peculiarities ascribed to the territory of Barca — its numerous 
springs, its excellent soil, its large supplies of cattle, its various kinds 
of fruit trees, are all of them observable in the mountainous districts 
of the Cyrenaica ; and there can be no doubt that these tracts are 
