so more rapidly, each descent being quickly succeeded by another,
till they finish altogether at the foot of the mountain.
The position of Cyrene is, in fact, on the edge of a range of hills of
about eight hundred feet in height, descending in galleries, one below
another, till they are terminated by the level ground which forms the
summit of a second range beneath it. At the foot of the upper
range, on which the city was built, is a fine sweep of table-land most
beautifully varied with wood, among which are scattered tracts of
barley and corn, and meadows which are covered for a great part
of the year with verdure. Kavines, whose sides are thickly covered
with trees, intersect the country in various directions, and form the
channels of the mountain-streams in their passage from the upper
range to the sea. The varied tract of table-land of which we are
speaking extends itself east and west as far as the eye can reach; and
to the northward (after stretching about five miles in that direction)
it descends abruptly to the sea. The lower chain, which runs all along
the coast of the Cyrenaica, is here, as it is at Ptolemeta and other
places, thickly covered with wood,and intersected, like the upper range,
with wild and romantic ravines; which assume grander features as
they approach the sea. The height of the lower chain may be estimated
at a thousand feet, and Cyrene, as situated on the summit of
the upper one, is elevated about eighteen hundred feet from the level
of the sea, of which it commands an extensive view over the top of
the range below it*. For a day or two after our first arrival at
* The height of the upper range from the level of the sea, as obtained by Captain
• Smyth from a sea base, was 1575 feet.—The dip of the visible sea horizon, repeatedly
Cyrene a thick haze had settled over the coast, and we were not
aware that the sea was seen so plainly from the town as we afterwards
found it to have been. When the mist cleared away the view
was truly magnificent ; and may be said to be one of those which
remain impressed upon the mind, undiminished in interest by a
comparison with others, and as strongly depicted there after a lapse
of many years as if it were still before the eyes. We shall never
forget the first effect of this scene (on approaching the edge of the
height on which Cyrene is situated) when thé fine sweep of land which
lies stretched at the foot of the range burst suddenly upon us in all
its varied forms and tints ; and imagination painted the depth of
the descent from the summit of the distant hills beneath us to the
coast, terminated by the long uninterrupted line of blue, which
was distinguished rising high in the misty horizon. If we knew
in what the powers of description consisted we should be tempted
to employ them on this occasion ; and would endeavour to convey
to the minds of our readers the same impressions of the beautiful
position of Cyrene which the view of it suggested to ourselves.
But one glance of the eye is, we fear, worth more, in calling up the
feelings which are produced by fine scenery, than all that description
is capable of effecting ; and the impressions which time will never
efface from our own minds would never (it is probable) be stamped, by
words of ours, on the minds of those in whom we could wish to excite
measured by us with a theodolite from the summit, was 42* 00 , which, adding for
terrestrial refraction, gives 2003 feet for the height—the mean of these, which we have
adopted, is 1805 feet.