TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
227 
range, was strewed with fragments of pottery and glass, among which 
we found a brass coin of Augustus Caesar in a very tolerable state of 
preservation. While the excavations were going on in this quarter 
(for the outer wall of one of the forts was also cleared a few feet, 
in order to obtain the measurements of the gateway by which it had 
been entered) the plan of the harbour had been completed, as far 
as it was possible without boats, and the reefs were set down by 
bearings and estimated distance. The best landing for boats was 
found to be under the high point which we have mentioned to the 
westward, on which the fort excavated had been built ; and on the 
beach at this angle were several heaps of sulphur, collected in equal- 
sized masses for embarkation, which had been brought on camels 
from the mines to the southward, and were said to belong to Ma- 
hommed Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. South-west of this point there is 
a large salt lake and marsh, which are evidently below the level of 
the sea, as we perceived a stream of salt water oozing from out a 
porous part of the rock on the sea-side, about eight feet above the 
level of the lake, and running into it. 'Che land at the east and 
western extremities of the lake is so low, as to render it very probable 
that it may once have communicated with the sea, and that the 
point on which the fort stands may have been an island. If there 
should prove to be sufficient water in the harbour of Braiga, it is 
probable that good anchorage would be found there, with all winds, 
behind reefs of breakers extending across the mouth of it : it may 
be easily distinguished by the very high sand-hills at the back of it, 
and by the ruin on the rocky point mentioned at its western extre- 
2G 2 
