SULPHUR. 
93 
force all the caravans to take that route. This would 
have acted as a check upon the slave-trade ; but the 
influence of the Gadamsee merchants was too great 
to allow the measure to be carried out. It is most 
important that the legitimate trade should not be 
burdened with double custom-dues, and it is to be 
hoped that the influence of the British Govern- 
ment will be used to bring about some reform in 
this matter. We should bear in mind, that as most 
of the goods and merchandise passing through Fezzan 
are only in transit, they are therefore legally subject 
to a duty of no more than three per cent. 
I have paid as much attention to this subject of 
the encouragement of the legitimate trade as my 
time and other occupations would allow me. It will 
be as well to make a note here on another point, 
though it may seem out of place, — the existence of 
sulphur in the Syrtis. There appears no doubt that this 
substance can be procured at the foot of a mountain 
called Gebel Sinoube, about six miles from the sea 
at the innermost point of the Syrtis. A considerable 
quantity is obtained by the Arabs near this mountain, 
about eiQ'hteen camel-hours south-west from a 
place on the coast called Maktar, the eastern limits 
of the district Syrt. There is also good sulphur 
found in the Gebel- Harouj, five or six days east 
from Sokna. But what is really the per-centage 
of pure sulphur on the rough masses of the mines is 
not ascertained; nor is the quality precisely known, 
except that of the Harouj mountain. Accurate in- 
