The region of the Cinyphus has still the same peculiarities which it has been stated to possess by Herodotus; there we still find the rich and dark-coloured soil, and the abundance of water which he mentions: but every thing degenerates in the hand of the Arab, and the produce of the present day bears no proportion to that which the historian has recorded. The average rate of produce of this fine tract of country (so far, at least, as we could learn from the Arabs who inhabit it) is now scarcely more than ten for one; and the lands in the neighbourhood of Zeliten and Mesurata are the only places cultivated to the eastward of the Cinyphus. The produce, in grain, is principally barley, with a moderate proportion only of wheat; but the date-tree and the olive are very generally distributed, and their crops are extremely abundant. We were informed that there was usually a considerable overplus of dates, olive-oil, and barley, both at Mesurata and Zeliten; and that the Arabs of the western parts of the Syrtis draw their principal supplies from the former of these places.
The country to the west of the Cinyphus is, to all appearance, equally productive (we should rather say equally capable of being made so) with that which we have mentioned to the eastward. A small part of this only, however, is cultivated, and we may observe generally, of the region of the Cinyphus, that by far the greater portion of that beautiful tract of country, from the eastern limit of the Syrtis at Mesurata, to the edge of the sandy desert at Wad’m’Seid, is now left in its natural state.
The following short account of the objects most worthy of notice which presented themselves to Captain Smyth in the course of his journey to Lebida in the year 1816, and the succeeding one, have been extracted from his private journal, and obligingly placed at our disposal by the author; and as we think they will not be unacceptable to our readers, we submit them, without further comment, to their notice.
The first principal point to the eastward of Tripoly is Ras al Amra, a projecting low sand, with rocks close in, but possessing a small boat-cove on its east side, resembling an ancient cothon: near it are the ruins of several baths with tesselated pavements.
Beyond Ras al Amra there is another small port, formed by a point of land between the wadies of Ben z barra and Abdellata, whence the produce of the country is shipped off in summer. The mouth of the Abdellata forms a picturesque cove, and on its left bank, a little inland, is a village consisting of troglodytic caverns, excavated in the sandstone rock, and many of which being furnished with doors, are used, instead of the usual matamores, as granaries.
Here begins the tract generally called Zibbi, and the land, rising gradually, exhibits a better, though still neglected, appearance, being thinly planted with olive-trees, and here and there a vineyard.
In the vicinity of the Ganema river frequent vestiges of antiquity announce the approach to a place once more prosperous; and in the valley of Seyd-n-alli are the remains of some Roman fortifications, called by the Moors, the Seven Towers, which from several local indications I think must stand on the site of Quintiliana.
Leptis Magna is situated on a fine level district, of a light and loamy soil, bounded by gentle hills. A great part of this plain is laid out in fields of corn, pulse, carrots, &c., interspersed with groves of olive, pomegranate, and date-trees, among which are a few vineyards; but it is by no means cultivated with the attention due to its susceptibility of improvement; and a great portion of the produce is annually destroyed by the gundy rat, and a species of jerboa, (probably the μυς διπους represented on the Cyrenian coins) which greatly infest all the grounds, yet no means are used to destroy them. The want of enclosures is also greatly felt, the young shoots of the seed being protected from the wind only by thinly-planted rows of the Scilla Maritima: however, notwithstanding every disadvantage, the harvests are generally satisfactory to the moderate expectations of these rude peasants.
Towards the higher grounds there is a good deal of pasturage, where camels, horses, oxen, sheep, and goats are reared; but the destructive method of the Arabs in impoverishing the land around their dowars, till it becomes exhausted, without any attempt to nourish or assist the soil, is everywhere visible, by the many bare spots whence the tents have been shifted to more fertile situations, which for the same reason soon become, in their turn, deserted also.