•226 JOURNEY FROM the same range of hills are other remains of building, originally connected with this fort, part of which we were induced to excavate, but found the chamber which we cleared to have been merely a storehouse for grain, or a reservoir for preserving water. It had been excavated in the rock, on the top of the range, and may be considered as offering an excellent example of the durable quality of the cement employed by the Komans in its formation * : for the stone in which it had been excavated had crumbled away, and left the cement with which the interior had been coated standing upright in its original position, in defiance of the storms of wind and rain which must have frequently assailed it from the sea.

We found some Greek and Eoman characters traced in the interior, and the representation of a ship and a palm-tree, of which copies will be found annexed, together with plans of the forts and of the chamber excavated. The surface of the cement on which these objects had been sketched was as smooth and as perfect as it could have been at any time, and we were in hopes, when we first saw the drawings, that others would be found on further excavation, and probably some inscription in Greek or Latin, by which we might have dated these productions. No other drawings or letters however were found, and we were obliged to content ourselves with taking copies of those described, and in making the plan of the chamber.

The ground about this excavation, and, indeed, along the whole * We have already assumed that the greater number of the forts In the Syrtis have, in our opinion, been constructed by the Romans.