224 
JOURNEY FROM 
Indeed, after passing the bottom of the gulf, the country at the back 
of the sand-hills becomes very capable of cultivation, and affords, in 
many places, an excellent pasturage. So that if we should consider 
the Syrtis in general as a large unbroken body of sand, which the 
ancients seem mostly to have done, we should certainly form a very 
wrong idea of the nature of the country in question. 
North-west of Sachreen, which may be considered as the bottom 
of the gulf, at about a mile and a quarter from the shore, is a small 
islet called Bushaifa, with breakers east and west of it ; and to the 
southward is a large marsh, with a ruin on a small rising ground in- 
land of it : from here a valley extends eastward between the high 
land to the southward and some sand-hills on the coast. The road 
lies tolerably close along the sides of these sand-heaps, which in some 
places rise abruptly from the edge of the marsh, leaving a very nar- 
row path between the two. It was probably here that Signor Della 
Celia and the army which he accompanied chose the passage over 
the sand-hills in preference to that along the marsh at the foot of 
them ; or it may be possible that the water of the marsh reached too 
close to the sand-hills when they passed, to allow of any choice of 
road at all. We however found the path at the foot of the sand- 
hills very praeticable, although we were occasionally obliged to pass 
singly along it. Had these sand-hills been capable of suddenly 
detaching large masses from their summits or sides, we might occa- 
sionally perhaps have been buried pro tempore under their weight, 
and might, in some places, have experienced considerable difficulty 
in extricating ourselves at all ; but we must confess that we did not 
