classic authors, whether poets, geographers or historians, have not, in the several accounts of the Cyrenaica and the adjacent provinces, taken the least notice, as far as I can learn, of this scene of petrifications. Such a tale, whether real or imaginary, would, in a particular manner, have been highly acceptable, as it was entirely suitable to the poetical invention of Lucan, who appears to have been well acquainted with the natural history of this part of Libya. It is very probable therefore, from the very nature and quality of this portion of the Cyrenaica, whose surface is perpetually changing by the shifting of the sands, that formerly either the palm trees* and the echini were Mr Fitton's Letter to Sir Kenelm Digby, mentioned above; from Kircher's Mundus Subterr. ut supra; from S. Clarke's Description, &c. These * We have just such another scene, though more dispersed, of petrified branches and trunks of trees, of various sizes, and probably of echini and their prickles too, if they were carefully looked after, upon the isthmus betwixt Cairo and Suez. too, no less than those at Ras Sem, were no doubt originally covered with sand, their proper matrix, which the winds, in process of time, have blown away and removed; filling up, in all probability, by these depredations from the surface, the Amnis Trajanus, the Fossa Regum, or channel that was cut betwixt the Nile and the Red Sea, and no small part of the northern extremity of the Red Sea itself. The learned author of the Description of the East, &c. vol. i. p. 131. has given us the following account of these petrifications: viz. I do not know,' says he, whether it 'may be looked upon as a probable conjecture, that the people travelling in these parts, and carrying some wood with them for their use, might leave it behind when they approached to'wards the great city, and that, having been covered with sand, it might petrify, and the sand be afterwards blown away; though indeed I saw one piece,' (and I may add, there are a great number), that seemed to have been a large body of a 'tree.' were not sufficiently laid open by the winds, or that the description of them, which can scarce be imagined, was not thought worthy to be transmitted to posterity. 2. It may be objected, in the second place, that the country of the Gorgons was so far from being situated where we find Ras Sem, in or adjacent to the Cyrenaica, that we are to look for it in or beyond the most western and extreme parts of Libya. For Lucan* describes it to lie under Mount Atlas, upon the ocean called therefrom Atlantic; and Pliny†, as he is authorized by Xenophon Lampsacenus, places the Gorgons among the islands of Cape Verd, as they are now called, two days sail from the continent. How great affinity soever may be then in their names, (for names do sometimes very strangely agree, though the least reason cannot be assigned. for such agreement), it appears, that the circumstances of the stories themselves (it is of no moment whether they be real or allegorical) are different; and consequently, that neither can the Gorgoniæ Domus and Ras Sem be the same. * Finibus extremis Libyes, ubi fervida tellus Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. vi. c. 31. CHAP Luc. 1. ix. 624, &c. 302 CHAPTER II. OF THE ANIMALS. SECTION I. Of the tame and wild Quadrupeds. As the principal riches of the Bedoween Arabs, no less than of the eastern patriarchs* and princes of old, continue to be valued according to the number * "And Abraham was very rich in cattle," Gen. xiii. 2. & 5. "And Lot also which went with Abraham, had flocks and herds.” "Job's substance was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand "camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she 66 asses," &c. Job i. 3. and xlii. 12. Familiæ aliquot cum mapalibus pecoribusque suis (ea pecunia illis est) persecuti sunt regem, &c. Liv. 1. xxix. § 31. De antiquis illustrissimus quisque pastor erat, ut ostendit Græca et Latina lingua, et veteres poetæ, qui alios vocant woλvagvas, (Hom. II. B. 104. De Thyeste) alios eAvμnas, alios Tas, qui ipsas pecudes, propter caritatem, aureas habuisse pelles tradiderunt; ut Argis Atreus, Colchide Æeta, ad cujus arietis pellem profecti regio genere dicuntur Argonautæ; ut in Libya ad Hesperidas, unde aurea mala, id est, secundum antiquam consuetudinem, capras et oves (quas) Hercules ex Africa in Græciam exportavit. Ea enim sua voce Græci appellarunt pena. M. Varro, 1. ii. c. 1. De re rustica. number and quality of their cattle, I shall begin the zoology of these countries with the description of such of them as are tame, and consequently of more general use and service to mankind. The horse, formerly the glory and distinguishing badge of Numidia, has of late years very much degenerated; or rather, the Arabs have been discouraged from keeping up a fine breed, which the Turkish officers were sure at one time. or another to be the masters of. At present, therefore, the Tingitanians and Egyptians have justly the reputation of preserving the best, which no longer than a century ago, they had only in common with their neighbours. Now, a valuable and well taught Barbary horse is never to lie down. He is to stand still and be quiet, whenever the rider quits him and drops the bridle. He is, besides, to have a long pace, and to stop short, if required, in a full career; the first of which qualities shews the goodness and perfection of the horse, the proper management of the latter shews the dexterity and address of the rider. No other motions are either practised or admired in these countries, where it is accounted very impolite to trot or to amble. But the Egyptian horses have deservedly the preference of all others, both for size and beauty; the smallest being usually sixteen hands high, and shaped, according to their phrase, like the antilope. The usual price of the best Barbary horse, is from three to four hundred dollars, i. e. from fifty to sixty or seven ty ty pounds of our money; whereas, in the days of Solomon, as indeed silver was then nothing accounted of, a horse came out of Egypt for CL shekels, which amount to little more than seventeen pounds. ance. The ass, the woy antTnToy, and the mule, which deserves the like appellation, are their most hardy and useful creatures, requiring little or no attendThe first is not so generally trained up for the saddle at Algiers as at Tunis, where they are frequently of a much larger size; but the mule is in general demand at both places, and preferred to the horse for common use and fatigue. It is certainly surer footed, and vastly stronger, in proportion to its bulk. I could never learn that the mule was prolific, which notion Pliny, and some other authors, seem to have entertained. To the mule we may join the kumrah, as the Algerines call a little serviceable beast of burden, begot betwixt an ass and a cow. That which I saw at Algiers, where it was not looked upon as a rarity, was single hoofed like the ass, but distinguished from it in having a sleeker skin, with the tail and the head (though without horns) in fashion of the dam's. Yet all these species are vastly inferior to the camel for labour and fatigue. For this creature travels * Est in annalibus nostris, peperisse sæpe (mulam); verum prodigii loco habitum. Theophrastus vulgo parere in Cappadocia tradit: sed esse id animal ibi sui generis. Plin. lib. viii. cap. 44. |