16 
JOURNEY FROM 
to the eastward of these, all of which make together a very good 
shelter. In the deepest part, however, there is very little more than 
five and six fathoms water. 
At the extremity of a rocky projection to the northward, forming 
part of the first-mentioned reef, are two batteries, called the New, 
and Spanish, forts ; and to the westward of these, on an insulated 
rock, is a circular one called the French fort. Besides these, there 
are two others on the beach to the eastward, which, with the New 
and Spanish forts, would prove of considerable annoyance to hostile 
vessels entering the harbour. The forts are in better condition than 
the walls and ramparts, which we have already stated to be very 
much dilapidated, and the guns very little attended to. 
The mosques and baths of Tripoly, with its coffee-houses, bazars, 
^c., as well as the manners and customs, dresses, prejudices, and 
other peculiarities, of the people who are in the habit of fre- 
quenting them, have been so amply, and so well described in 
other publications, that we need not here attempt any account of 
them *. 
We may, however, be allowed a few words on the peculiarities 
of soil, at present observable in the neighbourhood of Tripoly, as con- 
trasted with those which appear to have existed in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. 
It has been observed by Leo Africanus, (who flourished during 
* We allude principally to the works of Consul Tully and Captain Lyon, and to 
Blaquiere’s Letters from the Mediterranean. 
