in the Eastern Atlas. 175 



for Kef, the principal western frontier-town in the Tunisian 

 territory, intending to cross by that road into the province of 

 Constantine. Though the journey between Tunis and Kef can 

 be performed without much difficulty in three days, we, prefer- 

 ring easy stages to more rapid travelling, passed six on the 

 road. Our halting-places each successive night were Medjez 

 el Bab, Testour, Teboursouk, Dugga and Bordj Messaoud. The 

 afternoon of the sixth day brought us to Kef. Here, thanks to 

 our letters from Tunis, we were most hospitably entertained by 

 the governor, till our horses, tent-equipage, &c. had been for- 

 warded to meet us from Souk Harras, to which place Mr. Tris- 

 tram had sent them on leaving the Desert to proceed to Tunis. 

 Leaving Kef, and passing one night with the lawless frontier- 

 tribe of Waregra, we reached Souk Harras, the most eastern 

 military station in the French occupation. After spending a 

 few days in reconnoitring, we pitched our tents on the 4th of 

 April at the foot of the magnificent rocks of Djebel Dekma, our 

 camp comprising, besides ourselves, three servants, three tents, 

 four horses, with cooking-utensils and all the requisites for a 

 nesting-campaign in the mountains. From Djebel Dekma we 

 passed on to Khifan M'sakta, and from thence to Kef Laks, at 

 which latter place we remained till the end of the month of 

 April. The rocks and lofty precipices about Souk Harras, of 

 which the above-mentioned form some of the principal, are the 

 homes of the Lammergeyer, Griffon and Egyptian Vultures, of 

 the Golden, Tawny, and Short-toed Eagles, of the Barbary Falcon, 

 the Common and Black Kites. The eye of any lover of orni- 

 thology would be delighted and astonished at the vast numbers 

 of these magnificent birds of prey which all day long sail over 

 his head, their numbers increasing in the vicinity of the rocks 

 that hold their eyi-ies. Many a time, when in that district I 

 counted twenty and thirty, and on one occasion fifty-five Griffon 

 Vultures on the wing at once, wheeling in circles and gradually 

 extending their gyrations higher and higher till the uppermost 

 birds were lost to sight or appeared as mere specks in the sky. 

 Am Beida, another military station which stands south-east of 

 Constantine, in one of those elevated plains into which the 

 Algerian Atlas expands itself, and which with their numberless 



