The coast of Libya between the Syrtes and Egypt, both begins and ends with a narrow, inhabitable, and yet barren tract of land; but in the middle, where the country reaches the northernmost parallel, it is beautiful, inhabited, and of considerable breadth. The eastern coast of the Syrtes is a complete sandy desert, still, however, not so much so as to be totally uninhabitable; towards Egypt, the country is stony, dry, and incapable of cultivation. But between Berenice and a little to the east of Cyrene, it is beautiful, richly watered, and fertile. The whole forms a slope; the interior of Africa is considerably elevated, and the desert, too, where it is removed from the coast, is high, while towards the coast the land sinks down; only the tract on which Cyrene is situated, forms another table-land rich in wood and springs of water. From Cyrene downwards to the sea, the country is likewise well watered and capable of cultivation. The elevation of Cyrene is so considerable, that the harvest time differs by a full month from that in the lower country. The coast, however, is not so beautiful nor so well fitted to be inhabited as the higher country. CYRENE is situated at a distance of about ten English miles from the sea, but the beautiful country extends much farther into the interior; in the neighbourhood of Barca and Berenice, the fertile country is less broad. There are different traditions about the first settlement at Cyrene; according to one, the town was founded by Aristaeus and his mother Cyrene, and according to another by the Antenorids. This we learn from Pindar’s epinician hymns and his scholiasts; and these statements clearly show, that either a Tyrrheno-Pelasgian settlement existed there before the arrival of the Greeks, or at least that there was a belief that the coast had previously been inhabited by Pelasgians. Confusions, like that of Aristaeus with the Trojan Agenorids, also occur among other nations, among whom Tyrrhenian traditions existed. These legends, moreover, show different phases: according to one, the colonists who founded Cyrene came from Thera, whereas, according to Apollonius Rhodius, in his Argonautics, Triton, the Libyan god of the sea, gave to the Argonauts a clod of earth, which, on being thrown by them into the sea, formed the island of Thera. Here, then, we have again the same fluctuation as to mother-city and colony, which we have seen so often. Afterwards Cyrene was Doric, and unquestionably a colony of Thera. It was originally a small settlement, but during the period of the great commotion in Greece, about Olymp. 40, people from all parts of Greece flocked to Cyrene, being invited to defend the colony against the Libyans. Cyrene thus became great, and acquired the circumference which is still indicated by its magnificent ruins. Its kings traced their origin to the heroic ages, and are mentioned in history down to the Persian period, after which they disappear.