TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI, 
«7 
rata, the other to Eenioleed : we took the former, as nearest to the 
sea ; and at the distance of a few miles beyond Zeliten, we observed 
several scattered heaps of ruins on either side of the road ; most of 
these have been built on artificial mounds, with trenches round 
them, and appear to have formed parts of a military position ; but 
everything was so much mutilated and buried, that much time would 
have been necessary to make out their plans, which would scarcely 
indeed have recompensed the labour of excavation. 
At sunset we arrived at Selin, where the tents were pitched near 
an ancient well, forty feet in depth, and containing a good supply of 
sweet water. At the distance of about two hundred yards from the 
well, we perceived upon a hill the remains of what appeared to have 
been a fort ; and many fragments of buildings were discernible here 
and there in the neighbourhood. This place seems to be the Orir of 
Dr. Delia Celia, but we could perceive no traces of the Mosaic pave- 
ment which he mentions, nor anything to mark the spot as the site 
of an ancient city. The Doctor has fixed upon Orir as the position 
of Cinsternm; and the circumstance of its occurring (in passing from 
west to east) immediately before the promontory which forms the 
western boundary of the Greater Syrtis, would, in truth, seem to 
favour the idea. But Zeliten appeared to us more adapted for 
the site of a city, and the remains of that place had more the cha- 
racter of parts of a town than those which were observable at Selin. 
We should conceive that the ruins to the eastward of Zeliten were 
those of a connected series of forts, and that no other buildings had 
been attached to them than such as are usually found in the neigh- 
bourhood of a military position. Cinsternee, however, was a town of 
