480 The Hunting Grounds 



placed on a perpendicularly-scarped height, which is 

 divided from another mountain by a steep chasm or 

 ravine about fifty yards broad and two hundred feet 

 in depth, at the bottom of which flows the river 

 Oued el Rummel (the River of Sand). 



An old Roman stone-bridge, of two rows of arches, 

 formerly connected the town with the surrounding 

 country ; but it was carried away a short time ago, 

 having stood for centuries, and, the funds of the town 

 not being in a sufficiently flourishing state to repair it, 

 the soldiers have constructed a kind of steep winding 

 road down the sides of the ravine, which enters the 

 town at the ancient gateway El Kantara (of the 

 Bridge). There are two other gates, one the Port 

 de la Breche, by which we entered, and the other a 

 small postern, leading down into the ravine by a 

 steep path, impassable for carriages. 



The town is surrounded by an old Moorish crenated 

 wall, which bears the unmistakeable marks of the 

 French cannon when they took the place. The 

 streets are extremely narrow, dirty, and badly paved, 

 and the houses ill built, with flat roofs, much re- 

 sembling those of the worst parts of the suburbs of 

 Stamboul. The French have constructed a hand- 

 some fortified barracks, called La Casbah, and 

 several cafes and shops : otherwise Constantine is but 

 little changed, and much resembles a third-rate 

 town in Turkey; and, although the second capital 



