350 BENGAZI.

Neapolis is, however, laid down by Ptolemy between the cities of Teuchira and Ptolemeta; and Mably (or Mabny) is seven or eight miles to the S.W. of the former of these places ; so that it will not correspond in position with the city which its name appears to indicate. We may at the same time observe, that in the position assigned by Ptolemy to Neapolis we could perceive no remains which were indicative of a town; that we know of no town, described under another name, as occupying the site of Mably; and that the resemblance of that appellation to Nably, which would be the Arab pronunciation of Neapolis, is too close to be wholly overlooked.

Between Birsis and the sea (from which we have already said it is distant about a mile and a half) are the remains of two towers, occupying the summit of a range of sand-hills on the beach, and which we were unable to visit, in consequence of the marsh which runs along the foot of the range, and separates it from the cultivated land.

The country about Birsis and Mably is highly productive, wherever it is cultivated, and agreeably diversified with shrubs and brushwood, among which are a few fig-trees. The plain is here about six miles in breadth (from the sea to the foot of the mountains) ; and its general appearance, as the Arab tents were seen to rear themselves among the low wood and cultivated lands in which they were confounded by them, as we find them to be frequently by the natives of other countries.

The Neapolis here mentioned must not be confounded with that which has been identified with Leptis Magna.