that is always the way, the worse the article the more you are expected to pay for it. The Hôtel de France, they say, is very good. At any rate, nothing could be worse than the accommodation, as well as the boorish incivility, we met with at "Les Colonies."

After a nasty breakfast, we chartered a 'bus, in common with another English party, to convey us to the ruins of Lambèse, said to be three miles outside the town. For this 'bus we were charged inordinately, and dragged our weary length along in a generally hopeless and desponding manner, the horses being dead-beat, and quite beyond either threats or cajolement. In vain the driver kicked and swore, in vain he aimed at the sores on the poor beasts' backs with his cruel lash, hoping by this means to stir them into activity; do what he would he could not get up more than a jog-trot, which subsided into a walk every now and then. An English lady inside expostulated loudly at the cruelty to animals, and finally got out and walked, rather than countenance such a transaction. It was a dreary affair altogether, dark lowering clouds

half shutting out the hills, which are arid, and not inviting. In the neighbourhood of the town there is but little cultivation, great tracts of waste, with here and there a tuft of grass, but nothing anywhere approaching to the dignity of a shrub.

Arrived at the modern village of Lambèse, we hired a boy to do the honours of the place, and he carried us off up a rocky hill to the ruins of the Temple of Esculapius. Rather a pretty group of marble steps and overturned columns have been buried in weeds and grass-tufts. On glancing over the plain, shut in as it is by barren hills, the eye detects here the ruin of a temple, or there the arch of an aqueduct, which mark the original extent of the city. It must have been a large town, for remains can be traced of forty gates, and it was the head-quarters of the third Roman Legion, who were placed there to protect North Africa against the incursions of the Numidians. How they ever came to settle themselves in so unlikely a spot it is difficult to imagine-a barren country, arid hills, with little water, and the whole neighbourhood rendered, by its lack of population, a fitting home for

16

RELICS OF ANTIQUITY.

savage beasts. In that respect it is the same now as it was then, being infested with lions and panthers, hyenas and tiger-cats, lynxes and ichneumons, foxes and tapes, porcupines and wild boars.

I have heard the ruins of Lambèse compared with those of Pompeii, but am forced to say that there is no possibility of comparison whatever. We saw the remains of a house half excavated, the mosaics in whose atrium are well preserved, while its walls bear indistinct traces of ancient frescoes. This may be all very well for travellers new to such relics of antiquity, but for those who remember Pompeii's long paved streets, and the house of Diomed, the whole thing is a delusion and a snare. A few statues are collected in a sort of museum near the entrance of the town, but all of them are in the most degenerate style of art, and no more worthy of a visit than the place itself. We mounted the box of our vehicle in great disgust, and crawled back to Batna. Its uncomfortable aspect struck me more than ever as we re-entered its inhospitable gates, the cold wind rushing down its yawning thoroughfares, the

IN SEARCH OF THE PICTURESQUE.

17

low rampart and dyke which surrounded the town, as well as the small one-storied houses in its streets, giving the whole thing an aspect of insignificance unpleasant to behold. It contains a garrison of 2,000 men, besides the number of civilians mentioned above; and a real place of banishment it must truly be to the gay and pleasure-loving Frenchman!

Thoroughly deceived by the Roman ruins, we still resolved to persevere in the search after the picturesque, and started off on the following morning on mule-back to visit the forest of cedars, situated a few miles among the mountains. In course of time we traversed the monotonous plain, and began to ascend the hills. They looked blue and hazy in the distance, but do not bear near inspection, being very barren and brown; the roads, too, are bad, leading over sloshy swamps and broken rocks. Half-way up the first mountain we met a Frenchman, who strongly advised us to proceed no further, the snows having driven the lions from their usual haunts nearer to the

abodes of man. We were told, indeed, that they

VOL. II.

C

18

LIONS AND PANTHERS.

frequently prowl round the town, and have even been known, in very hard winters, to penetrate within the fosse and wall, and wander through the streets! A farmer told us that he was one night returning from a visit in the country, and suddenly came on two lions, male and female, who were taking a stroll in the moonlight, not twenty paces from him—he remained quite still, and they moved away. The lion's mode of securing his prey is curious, and, though sounding rather fabulous, is true nevertheless. Having seized a firm hold of the back of his intended victim, he lashes himself with his powerful tail into a gallop, and thus bears the terrified animal to a convenient spot, where he rends and devours him at leisure. He will never attack a man unless driven to do so by hunger, as his predilections lie more in the way of the inferior animals than of human beings. A panther, on the contrary, will spring upon you out of sheer malice, and is therefore a much more unpleasant beast to meet.

On the present occasion we made up our minds to proceed, and risk a danger which seemed to us