X. AFRICA SEPTENTRIONALIS. The Northern Coast of Africa extends westward about 2000 miles from the frontiers of Egypt to the Pillars of Hercules, that is from Long. 25° East, to 6° West;-bounded on the North by the Mediterranean; on the South by the Deserts of Libya and Sahăra, and by the mountain range of ATLAS. As we advance westward from Alexandria, we arrive at Paraetonium the frontier town of Egypt,1 two degrees south of which is the most famed of the Oases, which rise like islands, at rare intervals, out of the ocean of arid sand that stretches across the continent of Africa. In this Oasis was the Temple of Jupiter Ammon,2 which Alexander the Great went to consult. Returning to the coast, we meet with nothing of classical interest, except the Catabathmos, or great declivity, which Sallust improperly describes 1 Isı, Paraetonium genialiaque arva Canopi Quae colis, et Memphin, palmiferamque Pharon, Per septem portus in maris exit aquas.—Ov. Aм. II. 13, 7. 2 Ventum erat ad templum, Libycis quod gentibus unum Inculti Garamantes habent: stat certior illic Jupiter, ut memorant, sed non aut fulmina vibrans, Aut similis nostro, sed tortis cornibus Ammon.-Luc. IX. 511. Frigidus, et calidus nocturno tempore fertur.-LUCR. VI. 848. as the boundary between Egypt and Africa, till we reach Cyrene. In the latter days of Greece Cyrene was a flourishing colony, where art and philosophy were cultivated; but at the present day not a vestige of it remains. Farther along, Berenice is mentioned as a town near which were the Gardens of the Hesperides; but Virgil places them in Mauritania (Aen. IV. 481). This brings us successively to the shallows and whirlpools called Syrtes, major and minor, (from cupo, traho). Near the Syrtis minor was the Lake Tritonis, obscurely connected with the mythological history of Minerva, who is often called Tritonia Virgo.5 From this point commences a region of great natural fertility, which was long the 'granary' of Rome, and rich in historical recollections. First, we have AFRICA Propria, the proper domain of CARTHAGO, 3 Statius speaks of his father as of a man, 4 Quo non Munichiae quidquam praestantius arces, Doctave Cyrene, Sparteve animosa creavit.-ST. SIL. v. 3.107. tres (naves) Eurus ab alto In brevia et Syrtes urget.-AEN. I. 110. Barbaras Syrtes, ubi Maura semper Aestuat unda.-HOR OD. II. 6. 4. 5 Hanc et Pallas amat; patrio quae vertice nata the great rival of ROME, and 27 m. west, on the Bagrădas, was Utica, where the second Cato, rather than submit to Caesar, put a period to his life; and hence he is distinguished from Cato Major by the epithet Uticensis. In the interior is Zama, where the elder Scipio defeated Hannibal. We then enter Numidia, the country of Jugurtha, and the scene of the first exploits of Marius, which prepared the way for Metellus Numidicus to finish the war and carry Jugurtha prisoner to Rome. The last western division of this African coast was Mauretania, the kingdom of Bocchus and of Juba, bounded on the N. by the Mediterranean, on the W. by the Atlantic, and on the S. by the lofty range of Mt Atlas, which protects it from the encroachments of the ocean of sand that lies beyond. As we approach the Atlantic, we come in sight of Abyla (Rock of Ceuta) and Calpe (Rock of Gibraltar), the two Pillars of Hercules, on the opposite sides of the Fretum Herculeum, and have thus completed our tour of the Mediterranean with all its dependencies. 7 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON NORTHERN AFRICA. -The two most remarkable features of this country are, the Great Desert, and the mountain range of 7 -coelifer Atlas.-STATII THEB. B. v. line 430. jamque volans apicem et latera ardua cernit Atlantis duri, caelum qui vertice fulcit : Atlantis, cinctum assidue cui nubibus atris Piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri : Praecipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.—AEn. iv. 246. K Atlas. The former, the largest continuity of barren surface in the known world, extends, under different names, from the shores of the Atlantic to the banks of the Nile, interrupted only by a few oases or patches of habitable land, among which may be reckoned Phazania, the modern Fezzan, 300 miles long, by 200 broad, the country of the Garamantes. The whole length of this sandy desert is not less than 3000 miles, and the average breadth about 700. Nor is there any reason why the interference, first of the Nile and Red Sea, and then of the Persian Gulf, should prevent us from taking in as part of this stony girdle of the Old World the Deserts of Arabia and of Iran, and the table land of Altai and Desert of Cobi, quite on to the Wall of China. To the E. of Fezzan the African Desert is traversed from N. to S. by mountainous elevations of naked rock, in particular by the black and dreary Haratch, the Mons Ater of Pliny: and a calcareous ridge extends from the Oasis called Augela, to the Natron Lakes of Egypt, separating the Desert of Barca from that of Libya. It The mountain range of ATLAS, which is the northern boundary of the desert called Sahăra or Zaara, stretches from Fezzan to the Atlantic. rises in successive terraces from the most northern, which does not exceed 580 or 600 yards in height, to the farthest south, which, if it be covered with perpetual snow in Lat. 32°, as some travellers 8 Augila, or Augela, has retained its ancient name from the time of Herodotus, vid. B. iv. c. 172 and 182. affirm, cannot be less than 11,000 feet high. The lower elevations are calcareous; and among them was found the Numidian or Gaetulian marble, an article of luxury in great request among the Romans, (Hor. Od. II. 18, 4.) The successive gradations are connected by transverse branches running north and south, among which are plains and valleys, watered by streams without issue, and constituting the 'Country of Dates.' Atlas extends eastward from the Atlantic to the Regio Syrtica, forming a bulwark against the moving sands of the southern desert. The streams that descend from the northern side of Atlas water that belt of land, from 60 to 160 miles broad, which was long the granary of the Roman empire, and is now the country of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. HISTORICAL EPOCHS.-There is little in the history of this country worth mentioning here, except what relates to CARTHAGE, whose empire, at the height of her prosperity, comprised, if not the whole, by far the most valuable part of North Africa. The city is thought to have been founded by a colony of Phoenicians, before the building of Rome; how long before, is uncertain. Carthage was taken, and the Carthaginian empire destroyed, by Scipio Africanus Minor, (A. U. 609, b. C. 145.) The most memorable epochs in the ancient history of N. Western Africa after the fall of Carthage, are the unsuccessful attempts of Jugurtha against the power of Rome, (A. U. 643) and, 50 years later, of Juba against Caesar. The modern history of this coast affords a melan |