TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
235 
stone, of square blocks, arranged so as to touch each other at the 
bottom, and having the interstices above filled up with good cement, 
which appeared to be more durable than the stone. We found other 
examples of arches so constructed in different parts of the Syrtis 
and Cyrenaica. The appearance of the top of the arch just de- 
scribed had given us hopes of discovering an entrance to some part 
of the fortification through the wall in which it was formed ; but we 
found to our disappointment, on clearing it from the rubbish, that 
what we thought would prove the entrance extended no more than 
three feet from the external surface ; and that all farther advance 
was prevented by a solid wall built across it, which appeared to be 
part of the original structure. Among the rubbish we found a silver 
coin, and several copper ones, so corroded that it was impossible to 
ascertain their antiquity. 
We should willingly have given a much longer time to the exa- 
mination of the ruins at Tabilba than the few hours we were enabled 
to bestow upon it ; but the lateness of the season left us no choice 
on the subject, and we had already spent more time at Braiga than 
we could well afford to employ in such researches. It must how- 
ever be confessed, that if we had doubted the probabihty of being 
able to return and examine them with greater minuteness, we might 
have been tempted to stay longer at many places in the Syrtis than 
we should perhaps have been authorized in doing. 
We have no hesitation in supposing Tabilba to be the site of the 
maritimcB stationes of Ptolemy. Its position corresponds so w'ell with 
that assigned to the naval stations in question, and its remains are so 
2 H 2 
