a deep narrow valley, almoft perpendicular on both fides, through which the Rummel rolls its ftream. Over this vale a bridge of excellent workmanship was thrown; but it is now in ruins.

To the fouth-weft is a neck of land, about half a furlong broad, near which ftood the principal gate of the city. This is entirely covered with a feries of broken walls, cifterns, and other ruins, that are continued quite down to the river, and mark the fite of the ancient Cirta. The prefent city, however, is entirely confined to the infulated promontory already mentioned.

Befides the general traces of a diverfity of ruins fcattered over this place, near the centre of the city is a fet of cifterns which received the water brought thither by an aqueduct. They are about twenty in number, and form an area of fifty yards fquare. The aqueduct is in a very ruinous ftate, but ftill enough of it remains to evince the public fpirit of the Cirtefians in erecting fuch a ftupendous work.

On the brink of the precipice, to the north, are the remains of a large magnificent edifice, in which the Turkish garrifon is now lodged. Four bafes of columns, with their pedestals, are yet ftanding, and feem to have belonged to a portico:. they are of a black stone, little inferior to marble.

The fide pofts of the principal city gates are of a beautiful reddish ftone, and are very neatly moulded and pannelled. The gate towards the fouth-eaft conducts to the bridge, which I have obferved was built over this part of the valley. This bridge must have been a master-piece of its kind. The gallery and the piers of the arches are adorned with cornices and feftoons, oxes' heads and garlands; and the keys of the arches

are

are embellished with caducei and other orna

ments.

Between the two principal arches is the figure of a woman treading on two elephants, with a large fcallop-fhell for her canopy. This is executed in bold relief; the elephants stand face to face, and twift their trunks together; and the female, who is dreffed in a clofe-bodied garment, like an English riding habit, raises her vestments with the right hand, and casts a scornful look at the city.

Below the bridge, the river Rummel begins to wind to the northward, and continues that course through a fubterraneous paffage in the rocks. This feems to have been an extraordinary provifion of nature for the admiffion of the stream, which muft otherwise have formed a prodigious lake, and deluged a confiderable track of country, before it could have reached the fea.

Among the ruins, to the fouth-weft of the bridge, on the narrow flip of land, is the greatest part of a triumphal arch, called the Caftle of the Giant. All the mouldings and friezes are curioufly embellished with figures of flowers, battleaxes, and other ornaments. Corinthian pilasters, in a fingular pannelled ftyle, are erected on each fide of the grand arch, which is fituated between two fmaller ones.

At the distance of fome leagues, to the eastward of Conftantia, are the Silent, or Enchanted Baths. They iffue from a low ground, furrounded with mountains. Several of the fprings have an intenfe heat, and at a small distance others are comparatively cold, near which are the ruins of fome houses, probably erected for the convenience of bathers.

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The fleam of those springs is ftrongly fulphureous, and the heat is fo great as to boil a large piece of mutton very tender in fifteen minutes. The rocky ground, over which the water runs for the space of one hundred feet, is in a manner diffolved, or rather calcined by it. These rocks being originally foft and uniform, the water, by making equal impreffions on them all round, has left them in the fhape of cones and hemifpheres, which being fix feet high, and nearly of the fame diameter, the Arabs believe to have been the tents of fome of the aboriginal inhabitants, turned into ftone.

Where these rocks contain a mixture of harder matter with their ufual chalky fubftance, and confequently cannot be equally and uniformly diffolved, you are entertained with a confufion of traces and channels, diftinguished by the Arabs into camels, horfes, and fheep; men, women, and children, whom they fuppofe to have undergone fimilar transformations with their tents.

On riding over this place, it reverberates fuch a hollow found, that we were every moment apprehenfive of finking through it. The ground being thus evidently hollow, it is probable that air, pent up in thefe caverns, produces that mixture of fhrill murmuring, and deep founds, which, according to the direction of the winds and the agitation of the external air, iffue out along with the water. Thefe founds the Arabs affirm to be the mufic of the Jenoune, or Fairies, who are fuppofed to take a peculiar delight in this place, and to be the grand agents in all these remarkable appearances.

Many other natural curiofities may be seen here; for the chalky ftone diffolving into a firm impalpable

impalpable powder, and being carried along with the stream, is depofited on the fides of the channel, and fometimes on the lips of the fountains themselves; or elfe, embracing twigs, ftraws, and other bodies in its courfe, immediately forms an incrustation, and fhoots into a bright fibrous fubftance resembling the afbeftos, with many glittering traceries, and beautiful cryftalizations.

Among the mountains of Aurefs, to the fouthward of Conftantia, are a number of ruins. The moft remarkable of these are at L'erba, or Tezzonte, the Lambefe of the ancients. These ruins are nearly three leagues in circumference, and among others, confift of magnificent remains of feveral of the city gates, which, according to tradition, were forty in number; and that the city could fend forty thousand armed men out at each. The feats and upper part of an amphitheatre are still visible; the frontispiece of a beautiful temple, of the Ionic order, dedicated to Efculapius; a fmall, but elegant, maufoleum, in the form of a dome, with Corinthian capitals, with other edifices of the fame kind, fufficiently thew the grandeur and importance of this city in ancient days.

It is worthy of remark, that the inhabitants of the mountains of Aurefs have a quite different mien and complexion from their neighbours. Inftead of being swarthy, they are fair and ruddy; and their hair is a deep yellow, though among the other Kabyles it is dark. Thefe circumftances, notwithstanding their fpeaking the fame language, and being of the fame religion as the other natives, feem to point them out as of a diftinct origin; and they probably may be a remnant of the Vandals.

The diftrict of Zaah, the Zebe of the ancients, is a narrow track of land, extending under the mountains of Atlas, and confifts of a double row of villages. The richeft of thefe villages is Lyana, where the independent Arabs lodge their money and effects. It is under the protection of a numerous clan, to whofe bravery it owes the uninterrupted enjoyment of liberty, against all the machinations and force of the Turks.

The eating of dog's flesh, from which the Canarii receive their name, and for which the Carthagenians were formerly remarkable, continues to be the practice to this day among the inhabitants of this diftrict.

Leaving Conftantia on the north, we enter on the most extenfive and fertile diftrict of all Numidia, peopled by the powerful and warlike tribe of the Hanneifhah. This country is finely watered; and was once covered with cities and villages, the only veftiges of which are heaps of

runs.

The midland boundary of Algiers is the river Serrat, which falls into the Mejerdah. Near its western bank is Gellah, a village built on fuch a pointed mountain, that it has only one narrow accefs. This village, which can only be taken by furprise, or ftarved by hunger, is the common fanctuary of the rebels and villains of Algiers and Tunis.

Tipfa, formerly Tiapfa, is a frontier garrifon of the Algerines. This town enjoys a beautiful fituation, and ftill contains the principal gate of the ancient city, and fome remains of its old walls, with other veftiges of the rank it once held among the cities of Numidia,

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