834 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. IX- 
its inability to walk, and trembles at every joint, slipping, or rather 
sliding as it goes. It sometimes happens that a fall on wet ground 
occasions the death of the animal by splitting open its fore legs. Old 
]3aba Hassein's camel fell first, with him upon it, which raised a 
general shout of joy throughout the whole Kaffle. The Arabs most 
religiously beheved that the tempest of yesterday, and the falls of 
to-day, were owing to his never having given his Bousaferr ; and to 
the same cause was attributed our many delays in coming from 
Sockna, because " Ma fi el Barca there was not the 
blessing on the Kaffle. 
A considerable time elapsed before we succeeded in finding the 
Gusba, or Castle ; at last, to our great delight, we gained an en- 
trance, though not till after we had all been well drenched by two 
or three heavy showers. My fellow travellers took such rooms as 
had roofs water proof, while Belford and myself preferred pitching 
our tent in the yard ; by that means avoiding, in some measure, the 
multitude of fleas found in these buildings. We had travelled this 
day north 15° east, seven miles. 
I think it necessary to mention, that near our last resting-place 
I found two Roman ruins, one about a mile north-east of the other. 
In one, the foundations of two or three rooms are perfect, as are 
the bases of some very large pillars ; the other has part of a wall 
standing, with several square niches in it. The stones which com- 
pose these buildings are some of them seven feet in length by three 
in breadth, and appear to have been mortised into each other. 
On our rising the tops of the mountains we observed with great 
joy the sea, beating on some shoals at a distance from the shore ; 
but we could not see the beach, as it was hidden from us by the 
sands of Zleetun. To the great astonishment of my fellow travellers, 
who no doubt thought me mad, I chanted God save the King, and 
Eule Britannia, as loud as 1 could roar. The poor slaves looked 
