JOURNEY FROM «0 some uninteresting ruins, which from the situation were probably those of Mespe. Thence we Crossed the Messellata hills, and near the centre of one of the ramifications observed three slight eminences, which I am inclined to think must have been the Tumuli of the Graces of ancient geographers, though, but for the coincidence of the number, I should scarcely have remarked them. They are about 340 feet in height, and nearly five miles from the coast, thus differing in distance from the ancient account of 200 stadia ; but as the Cinyphus actually rises here, the early manuscripts may have suffered from bad copyists.

The Cinyphus is now called the Wadie Khahan, or weak river, in allusion to its sluggish course in summer, though it is still, to a little distance inland, a considerable stream, for this part of the world. Its shrubby banks render the lower part of it extremely picturesque, while both they and the sedgy marshes it has formed towards Tabia point abound with game of all descriptions. Near the high road from Sahal to Zeliten, the river contracts at once : here stood an * ancient bridge, of Avhich vestiges remain ; and adjacent is a tolerable subterraneous aqueduct, running in the direction of Leptis, with a ventilating aperture, at intervals of about forty yards.