554 Mr. C. Dixon on the 



is luxuriant, the road leading gently up the valley. On the 

 right arc the mountains clothed in cedar forests ; on the left, 

 portions o£ the Aur^s mountains, in some parts clothed 

 richly with evergreen-oak and pine woods. Some ten miles 

 from Batna we reached the watershed where the Oued Kan- 

 tara rises. As we left Batna behind us the evergi'een oaks 

 and junipers grew less, and more stunted, and the hills as- 

 sumed a dreary aspect. Soon after eleven we reached El 

 Ksour, which lies on the borders of a richly verdant and wide- 

 stretching plain, surrounded on all sides by hills, studded 

 with the curious dwellings of the Arabs, and smiling with a 

 golden harvest of barley just ready for the reaper's hands. 

 Then, after leaving El Ksour, the scenery resumes its dreari- 

 ness, and the caravans of camels on their way from the Sahara 

 to Philippeville were almost the only living things we saw. 

 There was but little of bird-life here : now and then a Crested 

 Lark would rise before us, or a Vulture would glide in gi'aceful 

 circles round the mountain-tops ; once we saw a Black 

 Kite ; but the most abundant bird of all in these sterile 

 wastes was Irby's Raven. Bird of ill omen, he (or his close 

 allies), lives everywhere, from the burning sands of the Sa- 

 hara to the far arctic north amidst eternal snows. Our road 

 now lay across a barren upland region, the towering peaks 

 of Djebel Metlili (the natural boundary between the High 

 Plateaux and the Sahara) appearing in the distance, below 

 which is the oasis of El Kantara. Some ten miles from the 

 pass of El Kantara we descend into the valley of the Oued 

 Fedala, cross the " Col des Juifs,^^ the scene of many Arab 

 robberies on the Jewish caravans, and were soon within sight 

 of that stupendous mass of rocks. El Kantara is indeed a 

 lovely spot ; and the rapid transition from alpine scenery 

 and bare and sterile wastes to a profusion of tropical verdure 

 is one as delightful as it is strange and unexpected. But the 

 beauties of El Kantara are not fully revealed until the pass 

 has been made ; and then they burst upon the astonished 

 traveller like a fair transformation scene. The barren country 

 is changed as though by the wave of a magician^s wand as 

 the wonders of tropical vegetation reveal themselves before 



