Small are the depths their scanty waves retain, And earth grows daily on the yielding main.—(Pharsalia, Book 9.) It here seems evident, that the Gulfs of Syrtis in Lucan’s time were believed to be growing shallower, and the land advancing upon the sea. This is certainly consistent with the present appearance of the Greater Syrtis (as contrasted with the accounts of the ancients respecting it,) and, from all that we have been able to learn, of the Lesser Syrtis also. It must, however, be recollected, that this accumulation of soil is only observable in the low grounds, where the sand is constantly heaped up by the sea; for in other parts (as we have already stated) the sea has gained upon the land. The advance of the sea, which may be considered to be equally certain with that of the land, will serve to prove how rapidly the soil must have been accumulating in the lower parts of the Syrtis; since there is reason to believe that (notwithstanding the rise of the Mediterranean on these shores) they were formerly covered with a greater body of water than at present.] [Footnote 24: We allude here to the vessels of the country, which we were told at Bengazi usually gave the Gulf a wide birth; thus realising, in modern days, what Strabo mentions of the vessels of the ancients.] [Footnote 25: ——— importuosus atq. atrox, et ob vadorum frequentium brevia, magisq. etiam ob alternos motus pelagi affluentis ac refluentis infestus. (De Situ Orbis. Lib. 1. c. 7.) This is said of the Lesser Syrtis, but the Greater Syrtis is stated, immediately afterwards, to be nomine atque ingenio par priori. Pliny also mentions both these peculiarities very briefly but decidedly; he speaks of both Gulfs as being _vadoso_ ac _reciproco_ mari diros. (Lib. v. c. 4.)] [Footnote 26: From συρειν, to draw, or drag along. Sallust’s words are “Syrtes ab tractu nominatæ.” Shaw has quoted Solinus, c. 6, and Dionysius Periegetes, 1. 198, as suggesting the same derivation. As if (he adds) “a συρω, quod in accessu et recessu arenam et cœnum ad se trahit et congerit.” (Vid. Eustath. Comm.) Travels in Barbary, vol. 1. p. 211.] [Footnote 27: Viaggio da Tripoli, &c. p. 62.] [Illustration: Plan of the PORT _and_ NEIGHBOURHOOD of BENGAZI BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._ _J. & C. Walker Sculpt._ _Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London._] CHAPTER XI.