Our Chaous, who sometimes attended on these occasions, never omitted an opportunity of displaying his own knowledge, and took a large share in the explanation of the different objects of attraction. He never omitted to beg for an exhibition of our chronometer, that he might have an opportunity of descanting upon the manner in which we regulated it, which he used to say was done by weighing the sun[11]; and poor Sala, our attendant on such occasions, was always called upon to produce the quicksilver used for the artificial horizon, which never failed to excite the astonishment and delight which our dilettante Chaous had anticipated.
Having purchased a supply of corn for our horses, which is here deposited, as is usual in Northern Africa, in cisterns or storehouses which have been excavated by the ancients, we left Zaffran, and continued our journey to Jedeed, where the tents were pitched for the night. This mode of preserving corn is frequently alluded to by ancient writers, and Varro has asserted that wheat thus preserved will keep for fifty years, and millet for more than a hundred[12].
From Jedeed we proceeded on to Shuaisha, passing by Bennet Hadeed and Hamed Garoosh, where are the remains of some forts, and a building called by the natives Rumīa (or Christian), but which has nothing to mark it as such, nor anything to recommend it to further notice. The country from Zaffràn to Hamed Garoosh becomes gradually higher, and in the valleys is well cultivated. We noticed many flocks of sheep and goats, some oxen and camels, and found in all parts hares, plovers, quails, curlews, wild-ducks, a few snipes, and a multitude of jackalls, which latter were indeed, throughout the journey, our constant companions. The evening setting in stormy, with heavy rains, we were very late in reaching our tents, and having passed unexamined some part of the coast, we remained at Shuaisha the whole of the following day (the 16th) in order to complete it. Between Jedeed and Shuaisha the coast is formed in small bays, and has some sunken rocks very close in shore: at about a quarter of a mile from the latter place, to the westward, we found the remains of a building shewing itself through the side of the cliff which covered it; its height from the foundation was about twenty-five feet, but its plan could not of course be obtained without previous excavation. At nine o’clock, on the 17th, we left Shuaisha, passed Marábut Duscarga (the remains of an old fort), and in seven hours reached Medīnet Sultàn, where we found a good supply of sweet water.
Medīnet Sultàn has been an important military position, as the remains of several strongly-built fortresses still remaining there attest; these buildings, like those at Zaffràn, are quadrangular, and the foundations of strong walls, communicating with the forts, are seen to cross them in various directions.
The plans of the buildings are more perfect than those of Zaffràn, and are upon a larger scale; those of the walls, however, could not be determined, and would require, from their ruined state, a very long and attentive examination, before their original dimensions and precise points of contact could be ascertained. We have given the plans of two of the forts, one of which, though apparently very perfect, is unprovided with any visible entrance. Two gates will be observed in the outer works of the other, although none is apparent in the habitable part of the building, which constitutes the most important part of it.
Within a square, or rather quadrangular, inclosure, attached to another of the same size, is a subterranean storehouse, or reservoir, which has been first excavated in the soil, then formed with rough stones, and lastly coated with an excellent cement, which is still in a very perfect state. The descent to this souterain is by a square well of trifling depth, which was so much overgrown and encumbered, as not to be immediately perceived. Having with us the means of procuring a light, we succeeded, without much trouble, in descending into the chambers which are excavated on each side of it, and in procuring the plan which appears in the plates. We were in hopes to have found some inscription on the walls, which we have already described as being very perfect, but nothing appeared but a few rude and unimportant Arab scrawls. In the neighbourhood of the military position, which we have noticed above, are the remains of the town already mentioned, called Medīna, where there are a number of wells and tanks in very good preservation; but the buildings above ground are in so mutilated and ruinous a state, as to render any satisfactory plan of them impossible, without a great deal of previous excavation.
So little is mentioned by any writer (with whose works we ourselves are acquainted) of the buildings contained in the Syrtis, that it will for the most part be difficult to assign any other name to the remains of forts and towns at present existing there, than those by which the Arabs of the country now distinguish them. Charax is pointed out by Strabo as occurring after the tower of Euphrantas; but before the position of this town can be ascertained, it will be necessary to decide upon that of the tower itself, which, in a country presenting a continued chain of forts from one extremity to the other, is by no means very easily established. The Philæni[13] villa is also offered to our notice; but its position must depend upon that of the Philænean altars, which we are told by Pliny were merely of sand, and which we know were not remaining in the time of Strabo[14].
Were it not that a more eligible position for the tower of Euphrantas occurs further eastward, at a place called Bengerwàd, in the neighbourhood of Houdea, we should have been inclined to adopt Medīnet Sultàn as a port where the tower might very well be looked for; and the circumstance of its being nearer to Zaffràn (which we have already given our reasons for identifying with Aspis) would certainly point it out as the more eligible position of the two, so far as the meaning of the term συνεχης may be concerned[15]. But the local advantages which the tower we shall hereafter mention at Bengerwàd possesses (considered both as a boundary fortress, and as a very conspicuous object), would certainly induce us to give a greater latitude to the term in question, than we should, under other circumstances, have ventured to allow; and we have accordingly given this fortress the preference in fixing the position of the tower of Euphrantas, or rather in suggesting a position for it which there is so little authority for fixing with accuracy [16].
At Medīnet Sultàn there is a sandy bay in which boats might find shelter with particular winds; and a lake commences here, apparently deep, which communicates with the sea in two places, and extends itself along the coast to the eastward. We narrowly examined the points of communication, in expectation of finding a passage through them by which small vessels might have entered the lake; it being probable, from its vicinity to the ruins above-mentioned, that the lake might have been used as a port. But the nature of the beach without, which was altogether stony, running out into dangerous shallows impracticable for vessels of any kind, rendered the existence of such a passage impossible. The coast between this place and Garoosh is high, and the land terminates towards the sea in cliffs, with a low sandy beach, and rocky points at the foot of them; but from the wady eastward it lowers again, and is marked only by sand-hills. Upon the lake we noticed a great many flamingoes, with red bills and legs; the head and neck were white, the primary feathers of the wings black, and crimson in the inside; the secondaries and tertials were grey, and the under coverts crimson: several coveys of snipes and curlews were also observed along the lake, which, as well as all other lakes and marshes in the Syrtis, is salt and unfit for use. On leaving Medīnet Sultàn we continued our route along this low and marshy ground, which extends itself as far as Nehīm, where our tents were pitched for the night, near two wells of excellent water. There were no remains of building that we could perceive along this track, with the exception of a few stones on two little eminences, which had been rudely put together for Marábut tombs. We learnt also from Shekh Mahommed, that the country inland was equally devoid of interest, and unoccupied by buildings of any kind. At Nehīm there is a sandy bay, into which ships might send their boats, with almost all winds, for water, at three wells which are situated near the beach.
At Hámmah also, a bay a few miles farther eastward, water may be procured almost at all times, the sea being rendered smooth by a shoal which stretches itself across the entrance of the bay. The two bays may be known by a promontory situated nearly midway between them, on which there are some ruins of an ancient fort which formerly overlooked the cliff, but these are now too much fallen to be perceived from the sea.