TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 251 rally attended by a corresponding increase of population, and numerous flocks and herds were everywhere seen where the soil was not appropriated to cultivation. A great part of the country from Ghimenes to Bengazi is encumbered by blocks of stone, placed upright in long lines, which are crossed at right angles by others, so as to form a complete labyrinth of inclosures. This peculiarity appears to be occasioned by the nature of the soil, which, although rich and excellent, is covered everywhere with a surface of stone of various thickness, which it is of course necessary to break up and remove, in order to cultivate the soil beneath it. To move the blocks, which are taken up altogether from the ground, would be an endless and perhaps a supei-fluous labour ; and they have accordingly been ranged in the manner we have mentioned, serving at the same time as boundaries to property and as impediments to the approach of an enemy. Before we were well acquainted with the nature of these inclosures, we thought to pass in a straight line across them to the several ruins which attracted our attention ; but after leaping our horses over some of them, and making them scramble over others, we soon found the labour was endless ; and that the longest way about, as the old proverb teaches us, was in reality the shortest way home.

Instead of attempting, in consequence, to advance any farther in a direct line to the object of our inquiry, we sought for some path between the walls which might lead us as near to it as possible.

After some little trouble, we discovered that long alleys were occasionally left in different directions, serving as roads to the places of greatest resort. These we afterwards found it most advisable to 2 K 2