The position of Cyrene is, in fact, on the edge of a range of hills of about eight hundred feet in height, descending in galleries, one below another, till they are terminated by the level ground which forms the summit of a second range beneath it. At the foot of the upper range, on which the city was built, is a fine sweep of table-land most beautifully varied with wood, among which are scattered tracts of barley and corn, and meadows which are covered for a great part of the year with verdure. Ravines, whose sides are thickly covered with trees, intersect the country in various directions, and form the channels of the mountain-streams in their passage from the upper range to the sea. The varied tract of table-land of which we are speaking extends itself east and west as far as the eye can reach; and to the northward (after stretching about five miles in that direction) it descends abruptly to the sea. The lower chain, which runs all along the coast of the Cyrenaica, is here, as it is at Ptolemeta and other places, thickly covered with wood, and intersected, like the upper range, with wild and romantic ravines; which assume grander features as they approach the sea. The height of the lower chain may be estimated at a thousand feet, and Cyrene, as situated on the summit of the upper one, is elevated about eighteen hundred feet from the level of the sea, of which it commands an extensive view over the top of the range below it[8]. For a day or two after our first arrival at Cyrene a thick haze had settled over the coast, and we were not aware that the sea was seen so plainly from the town as we afterwards found it to have been. When the mist cleared away the view was truly magnificent; and may be said to be one of those which remain impressed upon the mind, undiminished in interest by a comparison with others, and as strongly depicted there after a lapse of many years as if it were still before the eyes. We shall never forget the first effect of this scene (on approaching the edge of the height on which Cyrene is situated) when the fine sweep of land which lies stretched at the foot of the range burst suddenly upon us in all its varied forms and tints; and imagination painted the depth of the descent from the summit of the distant hills beneath us to the coast, terminated by the long uninterrupted line of blue, which was distinguished rising high in the misty horizon. If we knew in what the powers of description consisted we should be tempted to employ them on this occasion; and would endeavour to convey to the minds of our readers the same impressions of the beautiful position of Cyrene which the view of it suggested to ourselves. But one glance of the eye is, we fear, worth more, in calling up the feelings which are produced by fine scenery, than all that description is capable of effecting; and the impressions which time will never efface from our own minds would never (it is probable) be stamped, by words of ours,