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JOURNEY FROM 
the beach are constructed with larger stones than are usually em- 
ployed in the Syrtis, and, from what we could perceive of them, for 
the tops only appear above the sand, have been built with more than 
common attention to workmanship and regularity. Traces of 
building may also be observed for nearly a mile from the Mersa to 
the eastward, and the whole place is strewed with fragments of pot- 
tery. Several stone troughs are lying on the beach, some of them 
in an unfinished state ; they do not appear to have been intended 
for sarcophagi, as their lengths vary from five to eight feet ; while 
their breadth remains nearly the same, or from fifteen to eighteen 
inches. Had our time and means allowed it we should have re- 
mained a few days to excavate at Mersa Zaffran, and we had marked it 
as one of the places to be examined on our return : there is little to 
remove but sand, and it is by no means improbable that the results 
of excavation at this place would be interesting. As Mersa Zaffran 
appears to have been used as a port by the ancients, and is the 
first which occurs after the marsh, we may fairly consider it as that 
mentioned by Strabo with Aspis; and the remains at Zaffran are 
probably those of Aspis itself, which we may conclude to have been 
a mihtary post from the nature of the buildings which are found 
there ; although the word toto? applied to it by Strabo, does not 
necessarily imply any idea of fortification. No place worth selecting 
for any advantages which it might afford could, however, have been 
secure without some fortification ; and accordingly we find every 
desirable position in the Syrtis provided with forts lor its defence, 
which ensured, at once, the possession of the local advantages and a 
communication with the adjacent inhabited places. 
