4 Algiers as a Winter Residence. 



Place yourself within a day or two's journey from Algiers, 

 and you are as completely out of the world as the most blase 

 tourist could desire. If you are a sportsman, there is plenty 

 of game from the plover to the panther ; quails, partridges, 

 hares, gazelles, jackals, hyenas, filling the space between the 

 Alpha and Omega of the list. To catch sight of the panther, 

 one must travel a hundred and fifty miles from Algiers, and 

 there having reached the snow- tipped Atlas Mountains, may, 

 perhaps, find a lion too, if benighted in the cedar forests. 



For an artist, there is such inland scenery as few people 

 ever associate with " Afric's burning plains/' as Bishop Heber 

 has it ; delicious orange gardens, sunny plains sprinkled with 

 wild flowers, gorges of almost Alpine grandeur, olive-groves 

 glossy green, rivers wandering amid a flame of oleander blos- 

 soms, mountain scenery vivid and varied as only African skies 

 can make it ; and lastly, the ever-picturesque element of East- 

 ern life. Of course, we cannot enjoy such a feast of nature 

 without some hardships. The traveller must make up his 

 mind to ride over very rough roads, to sleep in caravansaries or 

 in tents as the case may be, and not always in clean beds, to 

 eat any dish that comes in the way, without too much inquiry 

 as to the matter or manner of it, and not to expect much 

 intelligence from such Arab guides as he may have to deal 

 with. 



With regard to the Algerian climate, there is not a doubt 

 that it is in some respects incomparable from October till May. 

 The air is soft and moist, and slightly bracing. When the sun 

 would otherwise be too hot, there are refreshing breezes 

 blown off the sea, and the nights are invariably clear and cool. 

 On the hills, too — we are now speaking of the suburban part of 

 Algiers — the weather is uniformly fresh and invigorating even 

 when the summer is advanced, and the inhabitants of the town 

 are suffering from the heat. Never shall we forget spending 

 last Christmas- day in a Moorish villa at Mustapha Superieure, 

 one of the prettiest, healthiest, and most elevated spots within 

 an hour's walk of the city. The skies were bright and cloudless, 

 the hill sides were clothed with foliage and flowers, and ladies 

 were plucking roses and violets in their gardens bareheaded. 

 It was, in fact, a June day. And with the exception of rains, 

 the winter of Algiers is uniformly mild, though every day is 

 not, of course, like that just recorded. At night, one is glad 

 of a little wood fire, and especially in the airy country houses, 

 which are admirably built for coolness and air. In fine, we 

 should say that for diseases of the chest and lungs, the 

 climate of Algiers offers all the advantages without the draw- 

 backs of other and more popular resorts. The fresh sea-breeze, 

 the elasticity of the air, the absence of any depressing atmo- 



