192 JOURNEY FROM is a small sandy bay which the Arabs call a port, and which might in former days have served as a landing-place for boats. This Ras (or head land), with Ras Houeijah, forms a spacious bay, in which good anchorage might probably be found close up under the western shore. After passing Bengerwad the coast gets lower, and the road leads along an uninteresting flat between it and the hills.

Five miles from the Ras, upon a sandy point, are the remains of a small fort, and about three-quarters of a mile inland of it are several large mounds of sand and rubbish, through which appear occasionally parts of the walls and ground' plans of houses. These are evidently the remains of an ancient town, and the houses have here been more concentrated than those of any town which we have observed in the Syrtis ; but they are now in so very incumbered a state, that we could form no correct idea either of their number or of their plans. It is probable also that excavation would here be uninteresting, as the hand of time seems to have been fully as much concerned in the destruction of this place as that of its most inveterate enemies. Considerable traces of building may be observed all the way from these remains to the wells at Hudea, and indeed all the way from BengerwAd ; and immediately about the wells the ground plans become more regular, as well as more numerous. There is no doubt that the greater part of this tract has been formerly inhabited, but the mounds which we have mentioned seem to us more characteristic of a town than any of the other remains ; and we will venture to suggest them as those of Charax, described by Strabo as a trading frontier-town, resorted to by the people both of Carthage