TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 225 anticipate any very fatal effects from the action of southerly winds ; nor did we believe it very probable that an avalanche of sand would seize the precise moment in which we were passing under it to precipitate itself upon our heads. Two hours, we should imagine, would fully suffice for the accomplishment of the passage between the marsh and the sand-hills, at any season in which it might be practicable ; and if double that time be allowed for the passage over the hills in question, when that below might be impassable from the rise of the water in the marsh, we should conclude it would be amply sufficient. As there is no other part of the gulf in which it could, at any time, be absolutely necessary to pass over the sand-hills at all, we are at a loss to imagine why the army of the Bey, and that of his Koman predecessor, should have given themselves so much trouble in crossing them. Immediately after the marsh commences pasture land, and after five hours’ journey from Sachreen, we arrived at a place called Gartubbah, where we found some Arab tents, and established ourselves for the night.

The next morning we proceeded on to Braiga, where we were led to expect, from the report of our Arab guides, that we should find a harbour full as good as that of Tripoly. Braiga has been a strongly-fortified post, as appears from the remains of several wellconstructed and spacious castles which have been erected there.

On the western point of the bay which constitutes the mersa (or harbour) is some tolerably high land, on which one of the forts has formerly stood; but which is now so much destroyed and encumbered with rubbish, as to offer little interest on examination. Along .2G