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THEATRE AND CLUB.

and the selection of pieces execrable. But there are two or three very fair singers; and when an opera is given, an agreeable evening's amusement may be had for a very small sum, the best places in the house only costing three francs. Every one walks thither, and walks home afterwards; there being so few parts of the town accessible to carriages, that pedestrianism is a necessity for many ladies, and is a fashion for all. Order is so well kept in the streets that not the slightest annoyance of any kind is to be apprehended. Except the theatre there is no kind of public amusement for the upper classes, beyond such as is furnished by the "Cercle," a club which comprises the chief military and civil functionaries, and to which strangers may be admitted by the recommendation of a member. There is a moderate library there, and a fair collection of French periodicals, besides billiard and card rooms, of which the French avail themselves from morning till night.

NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ALGIERS.

37

CHAPTER III.

THE immediate neighbourhood of Algiers is unsurpassed in beauty by any part of North Africa. The mass of hills which backs it sends out a branch which runs nearly westward for nine or ten miles, having an elevation which varies from six hundred to more than a thousand feet. It terminates at Rous-el-Knathar (the Cape of the Ruins), and throughout its whole extent approaches very closely to the sea-shore, on which side its fall is so rapid, that to ascend is in most parts extremely difficult, and the space which is left for cultivation is sometimes very small. Just outside the Bab-el-Oued, omnibuses are constantly to be found, which will convey the traveller about three miles in this direction on a pretty fair road. He will pass through the village of St. Eugène, where are a few houses most romantically situated, commanding a sea-view something like that from the under-cliff in the Isle of Wight. It is rather a favourite quarter of the English who visit Algiers. The route carrossable goes about a mile

and a half beyond St. Eugène as far as Pointe Pescade, where there is a ruined Moorish fort, armed by a few cannon probably taken from Christian prizes in the days of piracy. They are all ship-guns, and are allowed to perish with rust on their rotting carriages, which in some cases have already given way. A part of the buildings which remain serves as a barrack for a few French soldiers, whose wives. take in washing. The decaying bastion was employed as a drying-ground when I visited the place, from which an admirable view of Cape Matifou and the mountains of Kabylie may be obtained. Very soon after passing Pointe Pescade the road changes into a path which can only be traversed on foot or on a mule. I attempted it one day on a steady old Arab horse, and found it very difficult. The seaward slope of the hills is in some parts so very steep, and the soil altogether so friable, that a heavy fall of rain is sure to wash away the path in many places, and in others, where the track is not so close to the sea, to make a watercourse of it, and fill it with blocks of stone. On the faith, however, of a map which represented the path as rounding Cape Rous-el-Knathar, I persevered; but it cost me nearly three hours of very fatiguing riding to advance little more than six miles. At last I arrived at Rous-el-Knathar, and looked about for some ancient ruins which were said to exist in the neighbourhood.

CAPE OF THE RUINS.

39

But they are entirely level with the ground, and overgrown with dwarf palms and lentisque, the common brushwood of the country. I should not even have guessed the fact of their existence; but being in despair at the length of the journey, I made my way with much difficulty through the brushwood to a cottage, the inhabitant of which luckily proved to be a Frenchman,-almost all of the settlers along the coast are Spaniards,—and he told me that I was standing on the object of my search. My attention being thus directed to the matter, I did soon afterwards observe a stone with an almost obliterated Latin inscription on it; but this was so defaced, that I could not have decyphered it had I devoted twentyfour hours to the task, and the question now was how to get home, for there appeared some symptoms of an approaching storm. To return by the way I had come was very objectionable, but the path round the cape had thinned off into a mere sheeptrack, and looked dangerous even for a pedestrian. I dismounted, and went some way along it to sce if there was any sign of horses or mules having passed; but there was nothing of the kind. I then thought of gaining the crest of the mountain and descending on the other side, instead of turning the point; but the thickness of the brushwood stopped me before I had got fifty yards, and the horse, stumbling over the blocks of stone which lay

40

PASSAGE ROUND THE CAPE.

concealed beneath this overgrowth, had great difficulty in keeping his feet. There was nothing for it but to try the path, which the French colonist assured me continued so bad as it looked only for two or three hundred yards. My steed did not like the performance of the feat any more than myself. I had intended to drive him before me as the Swiss mountaineers do with their horses, holding them back by the tail in the very steep parts; but in this arrangement he was by no means disposed to acquiesce. No, the post of honour belonged to me; and if I wished to pass the headland at all, it was for me to lead. Without the least display of viciousness, he placed his fixed determination beyond the possibility of doubt, and at last we commenced our march, I leading with the bridle in my hand, and continually expecting to have him roll over upon me, and carry me with himself down the cliff. But happily we achieved our dangerous undertaking without accident, and after half a quarter of a mile were fairly on the other side of the cape, when the hill receded, and another mile over dunes of sand brought us to the village of Guyot-ville, from which a good road meets the main line from Algiers to Koleah.

Before the French invasion, the side of the hills below which the road to St. Eugène and its continuation passes, was studded with Moorish villas, of