COMMUNICATIONS. 
85 
the induftry of the people. The animals in which they mofl: 
abound are faid to be the common fowl, and the brown lonp-- 
haired and broad-tailed llieep. 
From Sebbah a journey of two days tranfports the Traveller 
to Goddoua, a fmall town of fimilar produce ; and from thence? 
in two days more, he arrives at Mourzouk, the capital of the 
kingdom of Fezzan. 
This city^' is furrounded by a high wall, which not only fur- 
niihes the means of defence, but affords to the Government an 
opportunity of collefting, at its three gates, a tax on all goods 
(though provifions are exempted) that are brought for the fup- 
ply of its people. Its diftance from Mefurata, which borders on 
the 
* The capital of Fezzan is ficuated on the banks of a fmall river, and is alfo fup- 
plied with water from a multitude of fp rings and wells. 
Being formerly built with ftone, it ftill retains the appellation of a Chriftian 
Town ; and the medley which it prefents to the eye, of the vafl: ruins of antient 
buildings, and of the humble cottages of earth and fand that form the dwellings of 
its prefent Arab inhabitants, is fingulary grotefque and ftrange. 
Ben Alli. 
