under the article Harutsch,) which will be proved clearly to mean
the rocky Desert of Souda, between Fezzan and Mesurata.
It should be remarked, that this alteration in the position of
Mourzouk, which is about 39 miles to the SE of its position in the
map of 1798, does not,-in any material degrëe, affect the interval of
space between it and Tombuctoo.*
* M . D ’Anville reckons thé distance between Tripoly and Mourzouk 24a G .i
miles, only 4 M . Delisle about 280, or less ; and Sanutp, who wrote on the African
Geography, (A. D . 1588,) 255. Thus, the 289 allowed above, from Mesurata, go
■beyond the highest calculation hitherto made, from Tripoly, which is yet farther from
Mourzouk, than Mesurata is.
CHAPTER II.
General Remarks, on the Countries, in the Line of Mr. HornemarC's
Route.
X s h a l l next proceed to. offer some geographical, and other,,
remarks, on certain of the subjects that present: themselves in and
about the line of Mr. Homeman’s route ; as, 1. The Bahr-bela-ma,
and Valley of Mogara. < 2. Siwab. 3. The Lesser Oasis. 4^ The
Valleys- of Schiacha and. Gegabib. 5, Augila. 6. The Harutsch. 7..
Fezzan and Gadamis,
I. The Bahr-bela-ma, and Valley of Mogara,
The term Babr is well known to signify (in Arabic} an expansa-
of water, whether sea, lake, or river:. and Babr-belar-ma, a hollow
space that is supposed to have contained them.: in, other words, the
sea, lake, or river, without water. In its application to the present
subject, it has been understood by some great authorities, to be the
ancient bed of a river; and that river, the Nile of Egypt; which
■they suppose to have quitted its present course, at Benjusef, and,,
passing through the province of Faiume, and the lake Kairun, entered
the sea at the Gulf of the Arabs. Having already given an opinion
on this subject, 1 shall say no more concerning it in this place,
than that it is by no: means weakened by any thing that has appeared
since; that opinion: was, “ that in ancient times the bed of the: