474 
MERGE TO GYRENE. 
is little more than a mere heap of ruins. As this is a conspicuous 
object in sailing along the coast, the observations for latitude and 
longitude were reduced to it. Some large building-stones and frag- 
ments of columns bedded in the walls of the Arab houses are all that 
we could perceive of ancient remains in Derna. Above the town 
there are a few tombs extant, but in a very mutilated state, excavated 
in the side of the mountain. What is called the port affords some 
protection for small vessels with the wind from north-west to south- 
east ; but even these cannot remain with a northerly or north-east 
wind : during the fine weather, however, some few anchor in it and 
load with corn, wool, and manteca, the produce of the inland country. 
The plague has made dreadful ravages at Derna, as is evident by 
the number of deserted houses on its outskirts. The year previous 
to our arrival it was brought (we were told) from Alexandria, and 
the mortality which it occasioned was very considerable : the prompt 
measures of the Bey, however, subdued it, who ordered the clothes 
of all persons attacked with it to be burnt, their houses to be pro- 
perly ventilated, and the streets to be cleared of everything that was 
likely to communicate the infection. These exertions were probably 
assisted by the general healthiness of the place, and the constant 
change of atmosphere produced by the passage of water through the 
town : the only remedy we heard of for the disease was the favourite 
application of a hot iron to the tumours, which we understood to 
have been peculiarly successful in many cases. 
Derna is the residence of Bey Mahommed, eldest son to the 
BashaAv of Tripoly, who commands the whole district extending 
