Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/30

 The so-called "port of Menelaus" lies to the north of the roadstead. But it comprises merely a small group of huts, and all the old Hellenic towns of the district have disappeared, almost without leaving a vestige by which to determine their sites. The establishment of a European colony, often proposed in the Italian press, would be greatly imperilled by the malaria prevalent on the coast, where the Wady Temim loses its waters in stagnant pools. In this district the marine in

shore current, which sets from west to east, when not obstructed by the winds, has a mean velocity of nearly two miles an hour.

To reach Derna, the ancient Darnis, the first town on the east coast of Barka, the traveller must skirt the north foot of the red escarpments of the Ras-et-Tin, and follow the north-west coast for a distance of 30 miles. This place, which was re-occupied in the sixteenth century by Andalusian Moors, comprises a group of five villages, or distinct quarters, divided into two sections by the bed of a torrent. Every house is here surrounded by a trellised vine, or overshadowed by a,