out any intervention of that very superfluous though highly-paid official, H.B.M. Consul-General, with such recommendations as proved no mere form of words, but facilitated our wanderings over plains and through oases hitherto untrod by European foot. The Governor, with his own pen, charged several of his subordinates to give us letters to any Arab sheiks in amity with whom they had personal acquaintance, to supply us with camels, escorts, and forage, and to prevent our needlessly exposing ourselves to hostile tribes. I found myself most undeservedly described as a "naturaliste très distingué," and P. as an "archéologiste profonde," a title perhaps better merited.

On waiting on His Excellency to express my thanks, I met with a most kind reception, and the gallant old soldier, as he shook my hand, after cautioning me not to expose myself to dangers from which no French authorities could protect us in the far-distant desert, added,-Recollect, the best of defensive weapons is "le sang froid Anglais," and, above all, keep your temper ; two pieces of sage advice which many, besides travellers in North Africa, might do well to ponder.

At length, after the many delays, doubts, and uncertainties which harass the intending traveller, as to whether horses will prove sound, whether dragomans will prove trusty, whether promised letters will arrive, behold us at the door of the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs, equipped gallantly as John Gilpin, little anticipating a fate as ignoble. My trusty dog Bob is in a paroxysm of anticipation at the sight of fire-arms slung on our shoulders, ourselves in half Arab costume, while Omar has undergone a transformation, has doffed his holiday red and gold, and appears in dirty brown blouse and Turkish trousers, loose alike in colour and cleanliness.

His legs are encased in extemporized mocassins of untanned leather, stitched in quaint devices by an Arabian artist; and altogether he looks much like a Red Indian, half civilized from the knee upwards. Cans, pots, sheepskins, leathern bottles, coffee, beds, axes, tent-pegs, eagle-traps, and traps of all kinds, are being crammed into sacks and panniers, and canteens are forced to lock on constipated interiors. Scarcely has the last dispute been settled with the roguish landlord, when, lo! our best and strongest baggage-horse steadily and obstinately refuses to move, and then devises and executes the plan of lying down and rolling in the street, over panniers and their contents. Smash go lantern, "batterie de cuisine," and coffee-case and stores; and the showers of gold we have been dispensing in all directions for some days are now pouring in torrents of fruit in the gutter,

After a fourth repetition of this performance in the "Grand Place," a Chasseur d'Afrique, who had laughed at our want of skill and volunteered to mount the refractory brute, was summarily ejected, and in the midst of our misery two hussar officers of my acquaintance came up and condoled with us on the fractures, with an ill-disguised grin in the corner. At length my own little favourite Arab grey, whom I had named "Gazelle," from his perfect symmetry, was condemned to bear the burden, and I mounted the incorrigible" bête noir," armed with the sharpest of spurs.

We ascended the winding Rue Rovigo, and, quitting Algiers by the old Moorish gate at the top of the city, close by the Kasbah, the ancient fortified palace of the Deys, soon reached Fort Empereur, so named from its builder, Charles V., and long considered the military key of the position. The breaching of this fort led the Algerians to surrender at once to the French in 1830.

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 (Chamaerops 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