BENGAZI. 287 or writing, or eating or resting one’s-self, in any part of Bengazi in comfort for them ; and if at night they take up their accustomed position on the ceiling, and give place to the fleas and mosquitos, the first dawn of morning finds them on the wing, and all alive to recommence their operations. They are at the same time so watchful, and so quick in their motions, that it is difficult to succeed in kilhng any of them ; we often caught thirty or forty fleas in a morning on turning down the bed-clothes with a little attention, and as many during the day on different parts of our dress, particularly about the legs and ancles ; but the whole collection of flies which we could kill in a week would scarcely amount to this number ; unless we except those which were caught in the traps which we were usually in the habit of setting for them. All hot climates are more or less subject to these nuisances ; but it is probable that no place on earth wiU be found to abound more in flies than Bengazi ; we might perhaps say, that few places could be mentioned where so many of them will at any time be observed.

The situation of Bengazi is, however, much better than so filthy a town may be said to deserve. It is built on the coast, close to the sea, at the extremity of a beautiful fertile plain, extending itself to the foot of a long chain of mountains about fourteen miles distant (in this part) to the south-eastward. Plentiful crops of corn and vegetables are afforded to the town by the cultivated lands in the neighbourhood, and the supplies of beef and mutton are in general very regular and abundant. The harbour of Bengazi appears to have been formerly capable of containing good-sized vessels, and, even in the recollection of some of the present inhabitants, the