TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
225 
anticipate any very fatal effects from the action of southerly winds ; 
nor did we believe it very probable that an avalanche of sand would 
seize the precise moment in which we were passing under it to pre- 
cipitate itself upon our heads. Two hours, we should imagine, would 
fully suffice for the accomplishment of the passage between the 
marsh and the sand-hills, at any season in which it might be practi- 
cable ; and if double that time be allowed for the passage over the 
hills in question, when that below might be impassable from the rise 
of the water in the marsh, we should conclude it would be amply 
sufficient. As there is no other part of the gulf in which it could, 
at any time, be absolutely necessary to pass over the sand-hills at all, 
we are at a loss to imagine why the army of the Bey, and that of his 
Koman predecessor, should have given themselves so much trouble 
in crossing them. Immediately after the marsh commences pasture 
land, and after five hours’ journey from Sachreen, we arrived at a 
place called Gartubbah, where we found some Arab tents, and esta- 
blished ourselves for the night. 
The next morning we proceeded on to Braiga, where we were led 
to expect, from the report of our Arab guides, that we should find 
a harbour full as good as that of Tripoly. Braiga has been a 
strongly-fortified post, as appears from the remains of several well- 
constructed and spacious castles which have been erected there. 
On the western point of the bay which constitutes the mersa (or 
harbour) is some tolerably high land, on which one of the forts has 
formerly stood; but which is now so much destroyed and encum- 
bered with rubbish, as to offer little interest on examination. Along 
.2G 
