vent any communication between the marsh and the sea except in
this place and the one which we are about to mention. In this place,
particularly, such connexion seems formerly to have existed ; for
here a passage still remains, through the higher land forming the
separation, by means of which the waters of the lake might have
emptied themselves into the sea, and on one side of this channel is
the structure in question which we have supposed to be a landing
place. Thé small vessels of the ancients might have entered this
passage, and have found sufficient shelter behind the high land*
which formed it ; on the inner side of which they might also have
been hauled up when the current through the channel was too
strong for them to remain afloat -f\
Nearer to Mesurata, a little to the southward of the Marâbüt of
Sidy Abou Shaifa, are the remains of what seem to have been a small
fort or station : its outer walls enclose a square of about an hundred
feet and there are vestiges of smaller walls within, which appear to
have divided it into several compartments. On the north-western side
there are some small blocks of stone, about two feet square, which
seem to have been the abutments of arches formerly supporting
the roof of the building ; and which are about eight feet distant from
* No part of this land can properly be called, high—but only by comparison with
the lower level of the marsh.
■J* It was not, however, necessary, in places of this kind, that the vessels should be
drawn upon shore ; for v(f>oqiaqs is the term here employed by Strabo, and the ogpcoi, oy
y<poç/xo», were somewhat similar to our own docks, and consisted of walls parallel with
each other, between which vessels would be perfectly secure from wind and waves, as
well as from the effects of strong current.
each other. These remains, forming at present nothing more than an
imperfect ground-plan, are situated on a low rising ground close to
the sea; and between them and point Abou Shaifa the lake may
have communicated with the gulf a little to the southward of the
point. There are also some slight remains of building in the neighbourhood
of this place, as well as in that of the causeway, occupying
the low range which runs along the coast: but from the presence of
the landing-place, at the communication first mentioned, we should
be disposed to adopt it in preference to that at Abou Shaifa, as the
trnjiM, or mouth, of the lake mentioned by Strabo.
Signor Della Celia, in stating that the lake or marsh which we
have mentioned, is the same with that laid down by D’Anville and
other modern geographers, under the title of Gulf of Zuca, or Succa,
has instanced the passage above quoted from Strabo in confirmation
of this opinion. But the Gulf of Zuca is represented as an inlet, or
creek, of not more than four miles across in any part of it; while
Strabo s lake is in width more than double that distance, and seems
to bear no other resemblance to the gulf than that of having a communication
with the sea. If, therefore, the Gulf of Zuca, as D’Anville
himself has stated, be actually laid down on the authority of Strabo,
we should rather look for its origin in another passage of this
geographer which occurs before the one we have, quoted. . In this
passage Strabo describes a Lake Zuchis, to which he attributes the
peculiarity of a narrow entrance at the point of communication with
the sea ; while he merely states, in his description of the lake we
have first mentioned, that it emptied itself into the Gulf (of the
Greater Syrtis).