the nation of Nannagi, the town of Boin, the town of Pege[3455], the river Dasibari; and then the towns, in the following order, of Baracum, Buluba, Alasit, Galia, Balla, Maxalla[3456], Zizama, and Mount Gyri[3457], which was preceded by an inscription stating that this was the place where precious stones were produced. Up to the present time it has been found impracticable to keep open the road that leads to the country of the Garamantes, as the predatory bands of that nation have filled up the wells with sand, which do not require to be dug for to any great depth, if you only have a knowledge of the locality. In the late war[3458] however, which, at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the Romans carried on with the people of Œa, a short cut of only four days’ journey was discovered; this road is known as the “Præter Caput Saxi[3459].” The last place in the territory of Cyrenaica is Catabathmos, consisting of a town, and a valley with a sudden and steep descent. The length of Cyrenean Africa, up to this boundary from the Lesser Syrtis, is 1060 miles; and, so far as has been ascertained, it is 800[3460] in breadth. CHAP. 6. (6.)—LIBYA MAREOTIS. The region that follows is called Libya Mareotis[3461], and borders upon Egypt. It is held by the Marmaridæ, the Adyrmachidæ, and, after them, the Mareotæ. The distance from Catabathmos to Parætonium is eighty-six miles. In this district is Apis[3462], a place rendered famous by the religious belief of Egypt. From this town Parætonium is distant sixty-two miles, and from thence to Alexandria the distance is 200 miles, the breadth of the district being 169. Eratosthenes says that it is 525 miles by land from Cyrene to Alexandria; while Agrippa gives the length of the whole of Africa from the Atlantic Sea, and including Lower Egypt, as 3040 miles. Polybius and Eratosthenes, who are generally considered as remarkable for their extreme correctness, state the length to be, from the ocean to Great Carthage 1100 miles, and from Carthage to Canopus, the nearest mouth of the Nile, 1628 miles; while Isidorus speaks of the distance from Tingi to Canopus as being 3599 miles. Artemidorus makes this last distance forty miles less than Isidorus. CHAP. 7. (7.)—THE ISLANDS IN THE VICINITY OF AFRICA.