468 MERGE TO GYRENE.

ing over the ground, and in making plans and drawings of the remains of antiquity which it presented, when news was brought to us from the Vice-Consul at Derna that H.'M. S. the Adventure had arrived there. As we particularly wished to communicate with Captain Smyth, we left Mr. Campbell in charge of the tents and set out on our journey to the eastward. We continued to descend for the first hour, tahing the route of Safsaf, where there are extensive remains of building, and soon came to a stony, uninteresting country, partially cultivated, and much overrun with brushwood; at noon we had reached a place called Tercet where we perceived the remains of ancient forts and those of some tombs and sarcophagi. We found ourselves here in the neighbourhood of an Arab encampment, and continuing our route over a country that appeared to have been cleared for the purposes of building, arrived by two o’clock at Lamlada, another ancient station, occupied, like that already mentioned, by Arabs. The nature of the ground continued very much the same with that which w e had already passed over, except that it was more hilly ; and by five we had arrived at Goobba, where w e found many remains of building and a w’elcome supply of fresh water from a spring. We observed that the tombs here had architectural fronts similar to those which we have spoken of at Cyrene. As the evening was fast closing in, we did not stop to give these much attention, but proceeded on to Beit Thiarma where we pitched our tent late at night.

At this place there is a spring of fresh water, built round, and upon a hill close to it the remains of an ancient fort. We had reason to