It is now dismantled, being commanded by the heights where Marshal Bourmont planted his batteries, and in its stead stupendous earthworks, revêted with masonry, crown all the outer heights. Here we turned to observe the magnificent panorama of the city and the harbour below, with the bay stretching far beyond, the slopes of Mustapha on the right studded with villas, the Sahel range terminating beyond the massive tower of the seminary of Kouba, the conspicuous Maison Carrée, now a military prison, planted just where the plain of the Metidjeh opens to the sea, the range of the lesser Atlas in the distance beyond, and the peaks of the Djudjura, the last stronghold of the Kabyles, behind them, capped with snow. We were on the spot where on 27th October, 1586, the Emperor Charles V. made his last celebrated but unsuccessful attempt on "El Djedzar," himself in person commanding. Hence the road passes through many scattered villages, and by pretty country seats, campagnes, and gardens, where in the time of the Deys the European consuls had their summer residences, guarded by a small body of Janissaries allotted by the government to each foreign representative. Hither, to the villa of the Spanish consul-general, the whole diplomatic body, protected by their guard, retired during the siege of the city by the French.

On the left stands a handsome monastic-looking edifice, with its central dome surmounted by a cross. It is the penitentiary, supported by the government funds, and under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy. A little further on, on the other side, are the extensive grounds and buildings of the Roman Catholic Orphélinat, likewise supported in a great measure by the state, under the management of the Jesuit order, and named Ben Aknoun. In this refuge destitute children and

orphans are received and instructed in agriculture and horticulture. The cultivation of cochineal has been here introduced with some success, and the well-ordered farm and grounds amply repay a visit.

Three miles further on lies the village of Dely Ibrahim, interesting as having been the first French attempt at agricultural colonization in Algeria, founded by the Duke de Rovigo, and settled principally by Protestants from Alsace. The first inhabitants were repeatedly decimated by fever; and when the Arab war of 1840 broke out, this place was the theatre of frightful scenes of carnage. It is now healthy, but scarcely a single survivor of the first colonists remains. The old barracks on the rising ground to the right have been given to the Protestant Orphélinat, supported by private subscriptions and a proportional grant from the public funds. A small quantity of land is attached to the Institution, where the boys are instructed in agriculture. A large Moorish house, half a mile distant, has since been added for the reception of girls, who are instructed in the useful domestic arts, and perform the indoor work of both households. Dely Ibrahim presents an interesting specimen of a well-conducted industrial school; it accommodates 120 children, under the charge of a resident director, governess, matron, schoolmaster, and agricultural labourer. These form the whole staff, and there is every reason to expect that, as soon as the land conceded by the government has been brought into cultivation, the institution will become in some measure self-supporting. Meanwhile it well deserves the notice and assistance of all Protestant visitors to Algiers.*

* The writer, who is its correspondent in England, will gratefully receive donations for its benefit.

From Dely Ibrahim the road winds down the southern slopes of the Sahel, for the most part still an uncultivated wilderness, the district having been conceded during the Orleans dynasty to the families of civil and military employés, or others having interest at court, and who now, being resident in France, and without capital to reclaim these wastes, let them for a small sum for pasturage. At the foot of the hill we reached Douera, originally a military outpost, and still walled, rather from past than present necessity. It contains large prisons, which at the time of our visit were occupied by political offenders, chiefly Red Republicans, condemned for their share in the outbreak of June 1848. Several thousands of these "Déportés" have been sent to Algeria, but the greater portion are permitted to settle in convict villages, on their parole, under the surveillance of the police. Here are detained only the most criminal, and those who have refused or broken their parole. A manufactory of rope, from the fibre of the dwarf palmetto (Chamarops nana), is carried on in the prison, which we readily obtained permission to visit. A physiognomist would be interested by the study of the expressive and often hideously repulsive countenances of these would-be regenerators of society.

The monotonous route from Douera to Blidah recalls to the traveller a ride across the Campagna of Rome, the white towns which stud the foot of the Atlas in the distance bearing a striking resemblance to the old Latin cities fringing the Italian plain. It is not, however, so desolate solitary farmhouses and villages occur from time to time. We spent a day at Bouffarick, much vaunted by the French as a specimen of successful colonization. It was known before their arrival as a mere Arab cattle-market in a morass, but military

exigencies compelled the conquerors to form here a permanent camp. For twelve years the annual mortality from fever was over 20 per cent. of the population, but the government persevered, using political déportés and condemned regiments to reclaim the soil, and Bouffarick is now another proof that persevering cultivation will, in time, overcome the most pestilential malaria. Fever has disappeared, and, although in the midst of the plain of the Metidjeh, there is not a more salubrious spot in the whole colony.

From Bouffarick the route continues in a long unvarying line to Blidah, its monotony only broken by the obelisk of Beni Mered, seen in the centre of the road at a distance of several miles. Here on April 18, 1842, twenty-two soldiers commanded by a sergeant resisted the onslaught of 300 Arabs, and after a desperate resistance were all left for dead. A surgeon who accidentally was with the party recovered sufficiently from his wounds to give a relation of the gallant affair, which has been commemorated by this lofty obelisk surmounting a fountain, and bearing an account of the skirmish in French and Arabic, with the names of the twenty-two heroes.

Soon we obtained a view of the celebrated Mauritanian monument behind us, called by the Arabs "Koubber Roumeah," i.e. the tomb of the Christian woman. Just beyond it rose, partially concealed by fleecy clouds, the rugged Mount Chenoua, behind the shelter of which is the port of Cherchell, the Julia Cæsarea of the Latins, and the Roman capital of Mauritania Cæsariensis. Before its conquest it had been, under the name of Jol, the royal city of the Mauritanians, whose mausoleum was the Koubber Roumeah just mentioned. There are the remains of an aqueduct, which can be seen from the