From Carcora to Bengazi the country improves at every step, and we soon found ourselves surrounded by extensive crops of barley and abundance of excellent pasturage: this increase of produce was naturally attended by a corresponding increase of population, and numerous flocks and herds were everywhere seen where the soil was not appropriated to cultivation. A great part of the country from Ghimenes 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 superfluous 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 occasionally left in different directions, serving as roads to the places of greatest resort. These we afterwards found it most advisable to follow, though they did not lead us quite in the direction we wished; and having got as near to our object as they could carry us, we had seldom many walls to scramble over before we reached the place where it stood. It is probable that some of these walls are of very considerable antiquity; for the soil in this neighbourhood could not at any time have been cultivated without removing the crust of stone from its surface; but we could not discover any inscriptions upon them, though we often examined them with the hope of being able to do so. We observed that in the vicinity of the forts the walls were usually placed much closer together, and the inclosures were in consequence smaller than in other parts.