304 THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION". 
never lies on the ground during the autumnal rains, 
to avoid sullying its colour. The number of towns 
and villages is supposed to amount nearly to an hun- 
dred. Mourzouk, the capital, lies in N. lat. 27° 48', 
and E. long. 1 5° 3', about 280 miles from Mesurata, 
1040 from Tombuctoo. Germa, the ancient Gara- 
ma, now ruined, is situated in N. lat. 27° 25', and 
E. long. 16° 20'. Zuela or Zawila, Tessouwa, Te- 
missa, Kattron, Mendrah, and Tegerhy, are men- 
tioned among its towns. In most of these towns, 
and dispersed through the open country, numerous 
ruins of ancient buildings occur, which exhibit the 
vestiges of former grandeur, in the proportions and 
durability of their structure, the number and size 
of the cisterns, and the construction of vaulted 
caves, similar to those which frequently present 
themselves among the ridges of Atlas. Fezzan is 
the Phazania Regio, which Pliny relates was con- 
quered by Corn. Balbus, who took both Allele and 
Cillaba, in this country, and, at his return to Rome, 
obtained a triumph. The barren province of Men- 
drah derives considerable consequence from the 
quantity of trona, or fossile alkali, which is pro- 
duced on the surface of its smoking lakes, and is 
employed in dyeing the Marocco leather. The 
houses of Fezzan are built of clay, covered with a 
flat roof, formed of the boughs of trees, over which 
earth is spread. The Fezzanese, who, by the in- 
habitants of Tripoli, are reckoned remarkably ugly 3 
