About Kyrênê itself, Captain Beechey states: “During the time, about a fortnight, of our absence from Kyrene, the changes which had taken place in the appearance of the country about it were remarkable. We found the hills on our return covered with Arabs, their camels, flocks, and herds; the scarcity of water in the interior at this time having driven the Bedouins to the mountains, and particularly to Kyrene, where the springs afford at all times an abundant supply. The corn was all cut, and the high grass and luxuriant vegetation, which we had found it so difficult to wade through on former occasions, had been eaten down to the roots by the cattle.” (ch. xviii, pp. 517-520.) The winter rains are also abundant, between January and March, at Bengazi (the ancient Hesperides): sweet springs of water near the town (ch. xi, pp. 282, 315, 327). About Ptolemeta, or Ptolemais, the port of the ancient Barka, _ib._ ch. xii, p. 363. [74] Herodot. iv, 170-171. παραλία σφόδρα εὐδαίμων. Strabo, ii, p. 131. πολυμήλου καὶ πολυκαρποτάτας χθονὸς, Pindar. Pyth. ix, 7. [75] Herodot. iv, 186, 187, 189, 190. Νομάδες κρεοφάγοι καὶ γαλακτοπόται. Pindar, Pyth. ix, 127, ἱππευταὶ Νομάδες. Pompon. Mela, i, 8. [76] See the fourth, fifth, and ninth Pythian Odes of Pindar. In the description given by Sophoklês (Electra, 695) of the Pythian contests, in which pretence is made that Orestês has perished, ten contending chariots are supposed, of which two are Libyan, from Barka: of the remaining eight, one only comes from each place named. [77] Herodot. iv, 172-182. Compare Hornemann’s Travels in Africa, p. 48, and Heeren, Verkehr und Handel der Alten Welt, Th. ii, Abth. 1, Abschnitt vi, p. 226. [78] Herodot. iv, 175-188. [79] Herodot. iv, 178, 179, 195, 196. [80] Herodot. iv, 42.