WITHOUT BOYS' GAMES.

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but such a thing as boating for amusement is never dreamt of. The nearest ground on which cricket or football could be played is indeed more than a mile off, but still the Government might provide courts for hand-fives on the spot. On the heights over St. Eugène, I once found some of the boys of another school, which is under the superintendence of the clergy, feebly attempting a game of ball, as girls will do in England; but this was the only specimen of combined amusement which I witnessed during my sojourn in Algeria; and any satisfaction which I derived from the spectacle was much abated by meeting the same school on another day, when the boys were walking two and two, and almost every one, even to the ages of seventeen and eighteen, carrying a huge wooden cup and ball in his hand, with the practice of which he relieved the monotony of the promenade.

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JOURNEY TO BATNA.

CHAPTER XI.

THE road from Constantine to Batna regains the bare limestone plateau soon after leaving the former place, and continues with a gradual ascent throughout. The country passed over becomes monotonous after a time, but its first aspect is extremely curious. It consists of an undulating steppe, altogether bare of trees, but at this season of the year (the second week of April) covered with herbage. Where the surface is limestone, the predominating plant is the wild artichoke; but where this is replaced by sand (generally impregnated with salt), the wild artichoke disappears, and wormwood is seen in its place. In many parts the colours of the wild flowers in the midst of the herbage are very gay. The different sorts grow in large separate masses, so that from a distance a hill will look something like an English flower-garden, with patches of yellow, blue, and red. There can be no greater contrast than exists between the vegetation of the plateaux of the Tel and that of these steppes. The dwarf pine and the lentisque

have entirely vanished, as have all the liliaceous plants, and in their place are seen various grasses, overtopped either by the wild artichoke, or by a kind of thyme of a grey colour, which the camels and goats eat with avidity.

The first post-station is Ouled-Eamoum, about eighteen miles from Constantine. As far as this point the road runs along the eastern side of the valley of the Bou-Merzoug, a little river, which, flowing from the south-south-west, falls into the Rummel just before the arrival of the latter at Constantine. The village, if it may be so called, for it contains scarcely a house, except two inns and a gendarmerie station, occupies the site of a fortified post, but it only fills a very small part of the loopholed wall which still stands. The appearance is melancholy in the extreme. One of the piers of the southern gate has been half knocked down by a wagon running against it; and so will remain till it falls down altogether. Three or four miles farther is the point where the aqueduct which supplies Constantine with water takes its origin; and soon after this the traveller reaches the region of the lakes which characterise the middle portion of the plateau of the Atlas. The first of these is nothing more than a large marsh, only very slightly saline, standing in the midst of a plain as flat as a cricket-ground, and covered with fine grass, like that to be seen on the South downs, where

the chalk does not come up to the surface. I estimated the height above the level of the sea to be 2,455 feet, being 1,317 above the Pont d'Aumale, which crosses the Oued-el-Rummel just below Constantine. The route still continues, with slight rise and fall but on the whole ascending, till about forty-six miles from Constantine, when we stopped for our midday meal at a little inn, called from its situation the "Hotel des deux lacs." These are two lakes strongly impregnated with salt, and divided from one another by a bank of sand too loose for anything to grow upon it. The road passes along the side of the westernmost one, and I estimated its surface at 2,538 feet above the sea level, and about thirty-six below the " Hotel," which is placed, as it were, on the rim of the cavity that contains it. The salt is obtained without any trouble, being left on the bank as the water evaporates under the rays of the summer sun. Except for the waterfowl on the lake, the view is rather a gloomy one. There is a dreary monotony in the colour of the vegetation which covers the surrounding mountains, the soil of which is probably highly saline. A few Europeans are living in the neighbourhood, employed by the contractors for the salt, but their huts are not in sight from the road; and except the posts of the electric telegraph which are continued along here, the little inn is all that exists within many miles to remind the traveller of Europe. But the neighbouring steppe

THE GRAZING SEASON.

303

is no desert at this time of the year. Except just where the sand is loose and driving, it is thickly covered with herbage, and populous with the camps of nomad Arabs who come with their flocks and herds to eat this off. There are no longer any admixture of gourbis to be seen. The tent is the only form of dwelling. Neither are there any asses or mules,-the animals best adapted for the Tel,-nor many horses, but enormous flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of camels. Of the last we saw some not containing less, I should think, than 300 head. The young camels run by the side of their dams, and are extremely pretty little creatures, not being the gawky objects that the foal of the mare is, but the exact image in miniature of the full-grown animal, with all the sportiveness and disposition to gambol which belongs to their age. The sheep and goats are not allowed to scatter themselves about among the herbage. Profuse as it is, the Arab knows he must economise it, and the flock drawn up in line like a regiment of soldiers, goes slowly on, eating all as it comes. Each tribe, and subdivision of a tribe, has its own separate area for pasturing, and the object is to make this carry as much stock as possible, the wealth of a pastoral Arab being derived from his wool. The number of douars, or nomad camps, in this region, is at this season very great. From the time of first entering upon the lake country to the reappearance of trees, a few miles before