TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
199 
able and willing to do so in a good hearty draught of muddy 
water. 
Our route on the following day lay over a barren and rugged coun- 
try, which continues all the way from Hudia to the confines of Barca, 
where the soil begins gradually to assume a better appearance. In 
the afternoon, as we passed Mahiriga, we observed the remains of a 
(quadrangular building occupying the summit of a low range of hills 
which lay between our road and the sea. On a closer examination? 
we found it to be different in plan from any building which we had 
hitherto met with. At each of the angles there is a circular turrets 
sloping down from the top, and becoming considerably wider at the 
base. The sides of this building are constructed with well-shaped 
stones of four and five feet in length, closely fitted together, and fast- 
ened with an excellent cement ; but the turrets were found to be 
built of much smaller stones, not shaped or put together with the 
same attention to regularity, and proved on near inspection to be 
built on to the outer walls and not into them. They may therefore be 
considered as forming no part of the original plan, and have probably 
been added at some early period by the Arabs. No traces remain 
of the external roof of this building, but part of an arched roof is 
still visible on the ground-floor within, which, from its inferior work- 
manship, we should be inchned to attribute to the same period at 
which the turrets were added. Traces of walls are also seen in the 
inside of the building, which have formerly divided it into chambers ; 
they are composed of very small stones and appear to be of later 
work than the exterior. This fortress, for such it has originally 
