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JOURNEY FROM 
vent any communication between the marsh and the sea except in 
this place and the one which we are about to mention. In this place, 
particularly, such connexion seems formerly to have existed; for 
here a passage still remains, through the higher land forming the 
separation, by means of which the waters of the lake might have 
emptied themselves into the sea, and on one side of this channel is 
the structure in question which we have supposed to be a landing 
place. The small vessels of the ancients might have entered this 
passage, and have found sufficient shelter behind the high land* 
which formed it ; on the inner side of which they might also have 
been hauled up when the current through the channel was too 
strong for them to remain afloat f . 
Nearer to Mesurata, a little to the southward of the Marabut of 
Sidy Abou Shaifa, are the remains of what seem to have been a small 
fort or station : its outer walls enclose a square of about an hundred 
feet and there are vestiges of smaller walls within, which appear to 
have divided it into several compartments. On the north-western side 
there are some small blocks ol stone, about two feet square, which 
seem to have been the abutments of arches formerly supporting 
the roof of the building ; and which are about eight feet distant from 
* No part of this land can properly be called high — but only by comparison with 
the lower level of the mai'sh. 
•}• It was not, however, necessary, in places of this kind, that the vessels should be 
drawn upon shore ; for vtpo^/xos- is the term here employed by feti’abo, and the oi 
v(poqfxoi, were somewhat similar to our own docks, and consisted of walls parallel with 
each other, between which vessels would be perfectly secure from wind and waves, as 
well as from the effects of strong current. 
