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. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: The stade of Strabo has been estimated by Major Rennell, in his admirable treatise on the itinerary stade of the Greeks, at 700 to a geographical degree; and 930 stades will, on this computation, be equal to 100½[a] Roman miles, or 80⅒ geographic miles. While the dimensions of the diameter, 1500 stades, will be equal to 162½ Roman miles, or 128⁵⁷⁄₁₀₀ geographic.] [Footnote a: The geographical and Roman miles differ (says Shaw, on the authority of D’Anville) as 60 is to 75½, that is, 60 geographical miles and 75½ Roman miles are equal to one degree of a great circle. The Roman mile is consequently one-fifth less than a geographic mile.—Vol. i. p. 30.] [Footnote 2: Ἡ δε μεγαλη Συρτις τον μεν κυκλον εχει σταδιων εννακοσιων τριακοντα που· την δ᾽ επι τον μυχον διαμετρον χιλιων πεντακοσιων· τοσουτον δε που και το του στοματος πλατος.—Lib. xvii. p. 385.] [Footnote 3: In the second book, however, the measurements given by Strabo are more consistent; for he tells us that the circumference of the Greater Syrtis is (according to Eratosthenes) five thousand stadia, or 428⁴⁵⁄₁₀₀ geographic mile[a]; and its depth, from the Hesperides to Automala, and the limits of the Cyrenaica, one thousand eight hundred, or 154²⁹⁄₁₀₀ geographic miles. Others, he adds, make the circumference four thousand stadia, 342⁸⁸⁄₁₀₀ geographic miles; and the depth one thousand five hundred stadia, or 128⁵⁷⁄₁₀₀ geographic miles; the same, he says, as the breadth of the gulf at its mouth.—Lib. xi. p. 123.] [Footnote a: At the rate of 700 stades to a degree.] [Footnote 4: This estimate of the circumference is deduced from the camel-track, corrected by observations; and the accuracy to which this mode of computation may be brought by care and attention, and by making the proper allowances, will be seen in the examples which we shall hereafter submit of it.]