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 i t : moreover, that the island in question
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 Bed
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 Kennell 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.” “ What changes” (he continues),
“ in point of form and extent, they may have .undergone, or if any,
we know n o t: but it is certain they have hitherto preserved theii
original properties.”
We insert below the lines of Lucan alluded to, from Bowe’s
translation *.
* When Nature’s hand the first formation tried,
When seas from land she did at first divide,
The
It will be seen that the principal danger of the Syrtes, according
to the passage above quoted from Strabo, consisted in the difficulty
The Syrts, nor quite of sea nor land bereft,
A mingled mass uncertain still she left;
For nor the land with seas is quite o’erspread,
Nor sink the wafers deep their oozy bed,
Nor earth defends its shore, nor lifts aloft its head.
The site with neither and with each complies—
Doubtful and inaccessible it lies;
Or ’tis a sea with shallows bank’d around,
Or ’tis a broken land with waters drown’d ;
Here shores advanced o’er Neptune’s rule we find,
And there an inland ocean lags behind.
* * * * . * *
Perhaps, when first the world and time began,
Here swelling tides and plenteous waters ran ;
But long confining, on the burning zone,
The sinking seas have felt the neighb’ring sun :
Still by degrees we see how they decay,
And scarce resist the thirsty god of day.
Perhaps in distant ages ’twill be found,
When future suns have run the burning round,
These Syrts shall all be dry and solid ground:
Small are the depths their scanty waves retain,
And earth grows daily on the yielding main.—(Pharsalia, Book 9.)
It here seems evident, that the Gulfs of Syrtis in Lucan’s time were believed to be
growing shallower, and the land advancing upon the sea. This is certainly consistent,
with' the present'appearance of the^Graater Syrtis (as contrasted with the accounts of
the ancients respecting it,) and, from all that we have been able to learn, of the Lesser
Syrtis also. It must, however,, be recollected, that this accumulation .of soil is, only
observable in the low grounds, where the sand is constantly heaped up by the sea; for
in other parts (as we have already stated) the. sea has gained upon the land. The
advance of the sea, which may be considered to be equally certain with that of the land,
will serve to prove how rapidly the soil must have been accumulating in the lower parts
of the Syrtis; since there is. reason, to believe that (notwithstanding the rise of the
Mediterranean on these shores) they were formerly covered with a greater body of water
than at present. a N 2