conspicuous position, seems to make this place so very eligible
a site for the castle in question, that we cannot refrain from point*
ing it out to our readers as the spot of all others which we
could most wish should prove to be really such. We know the
rugyo; Eutpgui/ras to have been a boundary tower, since it is expressly
said by Strabo to have been the limits of Carthage and
Cyrene under the Ptolemies; so far therefore the resemblance between
this fort and that of Strabo appears to be sufficiently complete.
Again, amongst all the fortresses with which the Syrtis is filled,
two only are mentioned in ancient history by name, those of
Euphrantas and Automala; and it would seem probable, from this
circumstance (at least it appears so to us), that these castles should
have been distinguished from others by conspicuous positions. Of
all the positions occupied by forts between Zafirdn and the point to
which we are arrived, there is no one which can be materially distinguished
from another but that of BengerwEtd, which we have just
been describing; and this is so remarkably conspicuous a position,
from the height of the eminence and its almost insulated situation
on the beach, that it must have been at all times an object of importance
from the sea, and could not fail to have been noticed by
Strabo in his passage along this part of the coast. I t is probable that
the position of the Philasnean Altars was not sufficiently well calculated
by nature for a boundary; and that this circumstance, rather
than the desire of increasing his territory in so unprofitable a district,
induced one of the Ptolemies to remove the line of separation further
westward to the castle of Euphrantas. In passing along the coast,
in a westerly direction, from the sandy tract where the monuments '
of the Philæni* might he looked for, had they still been in existence,
the most eligible situation which would present itself for a boundary
post is certainly that of Bengerwàd ; and this, as we have stated, is
so extremely well calculated for such a purpose, that we can scarcely
suppose it could have been overlooked by the king of Egypt when
he fixed the new limits of his dominions.
I t will be unnecessary to trouble our readers with any. protracted
discussion of a point which admits of no positive proof ; and we will
feave others to decide, without further remark, how- far. the meaning
of the term employed by. Strabo (<rvpi%>is): may be extended, in consideration
of the reasons which we have alleged.
On leaving Wady Shegga we passed over a tract of red sand collected
in little hillocks about the. plain, which were, however, as well
as the spaces between them, occasionally covered with vegetation.
We here saw, some gazelles, hares, and jackalls, and a good many jerboas,
and fired at a snake about six feet in length, which the Arabs
told us swelled out when much irritated, and was very venomous ;
he however escaped slightly grazed into, a hole, in the sand. This
was the only snake of any size which We had seen in the Syrtis ; it
was of a very dark colour, and about as, thick as. a man’s wrist.
Immediately behind the promontory which we have mentioned above,
* We have already stated, on the authority of Pliny1, that the Philænean Altars were
o f sand ; and as they must be looked for in,this neighbourhood, we hove supposed them
-to have been erected in the sandy tract which we shall shortly mention in our progress
eastward from Bengerwàd. For had they been raised on a spot where other materials
could have been easily obtained, it is not probable that any so unstable as sand would
have been used for the commémoration of so noble an action as tha t which occasioned
their erection.