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SEARCH FOR THE AQUEDUCT.

Seybouse. On the western side of the Boujermah is a low fertile plain extending about a mile in breadth from the river, backed by steep mountains covered with wood. Immediately below the spectator is a grove of wild olives of many hundred years old, growing in all probability over the ruins of the ancient Hippo. Here and there are clearances, occupied by small European farms, belonging to Frenchmen, but in almost all cases let to Maltese. The other mamelon which has been mentioned is crowned with a building, which I believe the French have converted into an hospital; but I did not visit it. On the top of the hill of the cisterns is also a building apparently of Moorish construction, which has been used as a block-house, but it is now in ruins. I took a great deal of pains to discover some trace of the aqueduct which supplied the cisterns of Hippo with water, but did not succeed. It must, I think, have come from the hills which divide the two rivers; but although the mamelon from which the cisterns are excavated is entirely detached from these,* not a vestige of any constructions remains in the plain

Sir Grenville Temple erroneously describes the hill of the cisterns as connected with the mountains which back it. But at the time he was on the spot, it was dangerous to proceed even a mile from Bona without a strong military force, and his inspection was obviously confined to the north side of the mamelon. The danger from wild beasts of which he speaks must, I think, have been imaginary in the day-time; although it is possible that the battues of General Youssouf have, since the time of his visit, altered the character of the neighbourhood in this respect.

between; nor could I find any in the hills. As these latter however are covered with wood, detection of anything of the kind is much more difficult.

There are some iron mines in the mountains eight or nine miles from Bona, the ore from which is brought to a smelting-house on the bank of the Seybouse by a tram-road, which however is not yet completed for the whole of the way. The works belong to a company whose operations seem as yet to have been confined to the making their own machinery: for no iron has yet been sold, although the company has been in action for ten or twelve years. The work at the smelting-house seemed going very languidly, although the superintendent told me that the ore was rich. I saw some negroes at work breaking it with hammers for the furnace. These men are satisfied to work for two francs and a half

day, and are preferred to Europeans, as they do not cease their operations on Sundays. There were also three Germans there, who seemed much dissatisfied with their position. They told me they never earned more than three francs in the day,-miserable payment indeed for the work of a smelting-house in Africa!

The hills in the immediate neighbourhood of Bona are composed of a limestone which in several instances. is crystallized into marble; and I was told that there were several quarries in the neighbourhood which promised to be profitable. But here, as everywhere

else, good roads are wanted; and even if they were made, it seems impossible that any port can be created without an enormous expenditure. The roads of Bona are very unsafe,-far more so than those of Stora. The wrecks of two vessels on the bar were a melancholy proof before my eyes of this fact. Yet at the present time whatever is embarked has to be conveyed in quite small boats to ships in the roads. At Bona itself, there is no space for wharves. Possibly extensive quays might be constructed by the help of piles on the low plain between the rivers. But the expense would be frightful. An artificial channel would have to be made, and kept open: and this would involve engineering operations on a great scale. And in the meantime, the French go on blasting rocks and constructing batteries to defend the town against some imaginary enemy, although the whole trade of the place is not equal to that of the poorest fishing-town on the south coast of England.