coasting navigation for the lengths of the coasts of Persia and
Caramania
In fact it was not till the time of Ptolemy that geography began
to be placed upon that solid basis on which it now stands so conspicuously
; and it certainly appears somewhat singular, that the writers
on this subject who flourished between the time of Hipparchus and
that of the Alexandrian geographer (among whom were Strabo and
Pliny,) should not have availed themselves of the discoveries of the
former to check the measurements which appear in their works f .
Various errors have been pointed out in the geography of Ptolemy ;
but as it can scarcely be supposed that he had sufficient observations
to regulate the position of all the places which he has laid down, we
ought not to be surprized at this circumstance. His outline of the
Gulf of Syrtis, though it cannot be called correct, is notwithstanding
more so than those which have since been given of it ; and the prolongation
of the gulf at its southern extremity, so erroneously marked
* “ Variations ever did and ever will exist (continues the Major) on computed distances
; instances of which existed on our own public roads previous to their improvement,
and which do yet exiBt on many of the cross-roads.” “ I t is probable,” he adds,
“ that Herodotus, Xenophon, Nearchus, Strabo, &c., all intended the same stade, but
may have given occasion to different results, by reporting the numbers on the judgment
of different persons.”
+ Hipparchus of Nicæa (“ who can never,” says Pliny, “ be sufficiently commended,”)
appears to have been the first who united geography with astronomy, by
determining the position of some of the places which he described, according to their
latitude and longitude*. He died about one hundred and twenty-five years before
Christ, and his important discoveries remained neglected, or at least unapplied, for
nearly three hundred years, till they were adopted by Ptolemy in his Geographical
Treatise.
» See Ptolemy. Geog. lib. i. c. 4, and Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. il. c. IS—36.
in modern charts, as well as the inlet called the Gulf of Zuca, which
we have stated does not exist, are neither of them laid down in it at
all. I t may therefore be said, that the true character of the gulf is
much better preserved in the loose outline of Ptolemy than in any
other of which we are aware. Whatever may be the reasons which
have induced modern geographers to introduce into the Gulf of
Syrtis the errors which we have alluded to, it is certain that the
best'chart which they have hitherto produced of it must undergo a
correction of ninety miles in longitude, and upwards of thirty miles
in latitude, that is to say, it must part with nearly six thousand
square miles of ground, before it will be consistent with the truth.
Should we pass from the measurements to the general character
of the Syrtis, we shall find that if the ancient authorities have erred
in their dimensions of it, they have been no less deceived with regard
to its nature and resources. The whole country from Bengazi to
.Mesurata appears to have been generally considered by the writers of
spitiquity as a dreary tract of sand, without water or vegetation, and
swarming with venomous serpents. But we have already shewn that
there are spots in this tract where vegetation is very luxuriant, and
where water may be readily procured; and although the extent of
marshy ground is in many places considerable, yet the proportions
between the barren and the productive parts of the Syrtis are not so
little in favour of the latter as appears to have been generally
imagined. The whole tract is so thinly inhabited, that a very trifling
portion of it only is cultivated ; but this circumstance is owing more
to the character of the Bedouins who frequent it, and to the govern