We are at a loss to imagine what the promontory can be which Signor Della Cella has identified with that of Ptolemy (and which he states to have been two hours distant from Mesurata) unless the Cephalas itself be intended, or, in other words, the cape which we have supposed to be the Cephalas[14]. For, with the exception of this, there is no other high land which will in any respect answer to the triple cape of Ptolemy; and this is not more than half an hour’s ride from the town, and is not in the route which the army must have taken in marching from Mesurata towards the Syrtis, as will be seen by a reference to the Chart. At the same time, we can neither persuade ourselves that Strabo would have instanced an accidental range of sand-hills as a promontory; nor that the word υψηλη, applied by this geographer to the Cephalas, can be supposed to mean distant, or deep, instead of high, as Signor Della Cella has imagined; notwithstanding the passage cited from Homer, which the Doctor reads in favour of his argument[15].
When we consider that the cape which forms the Cephalas Promontorium is, at least, as we have stated, an hundred feet high; and that, from the soft quality of the stone, which is continually crumbling away, it may have been in Strabo’s time considerably higher, we may fairly conclude that the term υψηλη (or high) is not quite so inapplicable to it as Signor Della Cella has asserted.
It is true that compared with high capes this elevation may appear to be trifling; but it seems quite sufficient when contrasted with the land about it, and particularly with the low and level surface of the Syrtis. The highest parts of the Cape, as we have mentioned above, are not at the present time wooded, whatever they may have been formerly; but the land at its base, to the south and south-east, is thickly covered with date-trees and olives: and, without allowing so much for the changes which time might be supposed to have produced, as would be readily granted to us by the most tenacious of naturalists, we may venture to assert that this cape, under its present appearance, answers sufficiently well to the description of Strabo, to authorize its being identified with the Cephalas.
The observations, however, which Signor Della Cella has made on the map of Northern Africa by Arrowsmith, respecting the extension of the Gharian chain towards the Greater Syrtis, and the omission of the low range which actually branches off from those mountains, are certainly very correct[16]. For a minor branch of the Gharian detaches itself from the chain, and runs down to the sea in the neighbourhood of Lebida; and another part of the same range extends itself from Lebida towards the Syrtis Major, gradually declining as it approaches that place, both of which are omitted in the map to which the Doctor has alluded[17]. The eastern extremity of the Gharian chain appears also to be carried too near to the Greater Syrtis, from no part of which (so far as our experience went) could any portion of this chain be perceived.
We were unable to discover any remains of antiquity at Mesurata; but its remarkable position between the fertile regions of the Cinyphus, and the barren dreary wastes of the Greater Syrtis, cannot fail to make it an object of more than common interest to those who witness the singular contrast.
From the high range of sand-hills, which we have mentioned above, between the town and the sea, an excellent idea may be formed of this striking peculiarity of situation; and we often toiled up their steep and yielding sides to enjoy the singularity of the prospect.
At the foot of these masses, to the southward, and to the westward, are the varied and cultivated lands of Mesurata[18]: there are seen endless groves of palm-trees and olives, among which are scattered numerous villages and gardens, rich tracts of corn land, flocks of sheep and goats, and everywhere a moving and busy population. To the eastward[19], a tenantless and desolate waste, without a single object rising from its surface, lies stretched in one long, unbroken, line, as far as the eye can range. Not a single tree or shrub is on that side to be seen; not a single house or tent, not a single human being, or animal of any description.
In fact the effect of the Greater Syrtis, from this place, is that of a dreary moor—a wide tract of level, waste land—without anything to distinguish one part of it from another but the windings of a marsh, which threads its dark surface, and is lost in different parts of the unbroken horizon[20].
Two days before our departure from Mesurata, a strong scirocco wind set in, and brought such myriads of locusts, that the air was literary darkened by them. The inhabitants in consequence remained out all night, keeping up a continued shouting and firing of muskets and pistols, to prevent them from settling on the gardens and cultivated lands. They who were not engaged in this occupation, employed themselves in collecting the locusts which had been beaten down, and carrying them off in baskets as articles of provision: so great was the quantity collected on this occasion, that we observed many asses, heavily laden with these insects, driven into the town and the neighbouring villages. The destruction occasioned by a large swarm of locusts can scarcely be imagined by those who have not witnessed it; and the account which we subjoin of them, extracted from Shaw, may not perhaps be unacceptable to our readers[21].
After this interesting description, the Doctor proceeds to observe—“The locust, I conjecture, was the noisome beast, or the pernicious destructive animal, as the original words may be interpreted, which, with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, made the four sore judgments that were threatened against Jerusalem, Ezek. xiv. 21.”