TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
251 
rally attended by a corresponding increase of population, and nume- 
rous flocks and herds were everywhere seen where the soil was not 
appropriated to cultivation. A great part of the country from Ghi- 
menes to Bengazi is encumbered by blocks of stone, placed upright 
in long lines, which are crossed at right angles by others, so as to 
form a complete labyrinth of inclosures. This peculiarity appears to 
be occasioned by the nature of the soil, which, although rich and 
excellent, is covered everywhere with a surface of stone of various 
thickness, which it is of course necessary to break up and remove, in 
order to cultivate the soil beneath it. To move the blocks, which 
are taken up altogether from the ground, would be an endless and 
perhaps a supei-fluous labour ; and they have accordingly been 
ranged in the manner we have mentioned, serving at the same time 
as boundaries to property and as impediments to the approach of an 
enemy. Before we were well acquainted with the nature of these 
inclosures, we thought to pass in a straight line across them to the 
several ruins which attracted our attention ; but after leaping our 
horses over some of them, and making them scramble over others, we 
soon found the labour was endless ; and that the longest way about, 
as the old proverb teaches us, was in reality the shortest way home. 
Instead of attempting, in consequence, to advance any farther in a 
direct line to the object of our inquiry, we sought for some path 
between the walls which might lead us as near to it as possible. 
After some little trouble, we discovered that long alleys were occa- 
sionally left in different directions, serving as roads to the places of 
greatest resort. These we afterwards found it most advisable to 
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