TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 227 range, was strewed with fragments of pottery and glass, among which we found a brass coin of Augustus Caesar in a very tolerable state of preservation. While the excavations were going on in this quarter (for the outer wall of one of the forts was also cleared a few feet, in order to obtain the measurements of the gateway by which it had been entered) the plan of the harbour had been completed, as far as it was possible without boats, and the reefs were set down by bearings and estimated distance. The best landing for boats was found to be under the high point which we have mentioned to the westward, on which the fort excavated had been built ; and on the beach at this angle were several heaps of sulphur, collected in equalsized masses for embarkation, which had been brought on camels from the mines to the southward, and were said to belong to Mahommed Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. South-west of this point there is a large salt lake and marsh, which are evidently below the level of the sea, as we perceived a stream of salt water oozing from out a porous part of the rock on the sea-side, about eight feet above the level of the lake, and running into it. 'Che land at the east and western extremities of the lake is so low, as to render it very probable that it may once have communicated with the sea, and that the point on which the fort stands may have been an island. If there should prove to be sufficient water in the harbour of Braiga, it is probable that good anchorage would be found there, with all winds, behind reefs of breakers extending across the mouth of it : it may be easily distinguished by the very high sand-hills at the back of it, and by the ruin on the rocky point mentioned at its western extre-2G 2