It will be seen that the principal danger of the Syrtes, according to the passage above quoted from Strabo, consisted in the difficulty of what is termed by seamen working off a lee-shore, for which the vessels of the ancients were very ill adapted; and we can readily believe, from what we have seen of the coast, that (under the influence of the heavy surf which rolls over the shallows when the wind blows strongly on shore) few vessels which chanced to strike could escape. The inset into the gulf, at the same time, being great, (when the north and east winds blow strongly against the coast,) it must have been extremely difficult for vessels of this description to avoid being drawn into its vortex; and indeed we may observe that few ships will, at the present day, sail from Bengazi, westward, when the wind is blowing strongly into the gulf, on account of this consequent indraught[24].
“The improved state of navigation” (Major Rennell very justly observes) “has, however, stripped the Syrtes of the greatest part of their terrors;” and it is probable that the report of them which we shall have from Captain Smyth will in consequence prove to be much less formidable than the accounts which have descended to us from the ancients.
It appears, from Mela, that the Syrtes were not only considered to be dangerous on account of the frequent occurrence of shoals, but more so in consequence of the flux and reflux of the sea which we have already mentioned above[25]. This rise and fall (as we have stated) can scarcely have been the customary motion of the tides; but it may reasonably be supposed that the reaction of such a body of water as must (under the influence of violent and continued winds) have been driven over the low lands of the Greater Syrtis, was occasionally very considerable. This may have been the reflux (we imagine) alluded to; while the inset into the Gulf, caused by strong winds blowing into it, may have been the rise which is mentioned as the flux.
Of the indraught in question there can be no doubt; indeed, we may remark that a rise of this nature is more or less observable in gulfs in general; and when we consider that an unbroken sweep of level ground, very slightly raised above the surface of the sea, will be found extending itself on the western coast of the Greater Syrtis for the space of a hundred miles in length, and occasionally as much as fifteen in breadth, we may easily allow that the reflux of the water, driven over a tract of such dimensions, may well be considered as formidable.
It appears to be from the effect of the flux and reflux alluded to, that the names by which the Gulfs of Syrtis are distinguished have been derived; that is, if we may suppose them to be of Greek origin, as Sallust and others have asserted[26].
Cellarius has, however, been censured by Signor Della Cella for having ventured to adopt this derivation, and for “not knowing that Sert meant desert in Arabic, and that this name is still preserved in the bottom of the (Greater) Syrtis[27].” But were we even to agree with Dr. Della Cella, that the district called Syrt is a desert, (which our friend Shekh Mahommed, who lives there, with many others, very comfortably, would be very unwilling, and very ungrateful to allow,) there does not appear to be any reason why the regions in question should be particularly distinguished as deserts, when the country which bounds them to the southward, and which is much more entitled to the appellation of desert than they are, was never called Syrtis either by ancients or moderns. The term existed, it is evident, in the age of Scylax and Herodotus, both of whom we find to have used it; but, in enumerating the several tribes which inhabited the shores of these gulfs, it by no means appears (as we have stated above) that the latter of these writers meant to characterise their country as a desert, or that he was aware of any such meaning implied by the term in question, Syrtis. If, therefore, we suppose the word to be of oriental origin, we should rather look beyond the language of the Arabs for its root; and as the Phœnicians were well acquainted with these shores at a very early period of history, we might suppose, with some appearance of probability, that the term has originated with them. As the peculiarities of the Gulfs of Syrtis appear to be more striking than those of the territory within them, it is also probable that the country would have been named from them, and not the gulfs from the country; particularly as the Phœnicians were a naval nation, and may be supposed (at the early period to which we allude) to have been better acquainted with the Gulfs than with the country here in question.
The Phœnician (or Hebrew) words from which the term Syrtis might originate, are probably the roots of the Arab phrase Sahara (صحرا), to which Signor Della Cella appears to allude; but instead of applying them to the country of the Syrtis, as expressive of its barren and desolate appearance, we should rather apply them to the Gulfs themselves, as expressive of the violent storms of wind which are known to prevail in them, and of the agitation and confusion resulting from their influence.
The terms to which we allude are the Hebrew words Saar (סַעַר), or Saàrat (סַעַרַת), signifying whirlwind, or tempest; and the root Sàar (סָער), from which they spring, expressive of agitation and disturbance; Soarah (סֹעַרח), tempest-tossed, is also another derivative of Sàar.
We have very slender pretensions to any skill in Hebrew, and merely offer the above suggestions for the consideration of those who may be inclined to reject the Greek origin of the term Syrtis; which, for our own part, we are very well contented to allow, on the authority of the writers already quoted, and on inspection of one of the places in question. It may be possible, however, that some Phœnician term, like those we have instanced, may have descended from that people to the Greeks, and afterwards through the latter to the Romans, who may have looked for the origin of it in some word of the Greek language which appeared to them expressive of the qualities of the Gulfs, without considering that the Greeks might themselves have received it from others.
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