TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
the Corinthian order, and three temples, the great- 
er part of which is entire. Bruce mentions here 
a composite temple, which appeared to him the 
finest specimen of that order existing. El Gemme 
is distinguished by the remains of an amphitheatre, 
consisting originally of sixty-four arches ; and four 
orders of columns one above another. Tbe up- 
per order has tumbled down ; and Mahomet Bey, 
in using it as a fortress, blew up four of its arches ; 
in other respects, this magnificent edifice is nearly 
entire. At Kairwan is a mosque, the most magnifi- 
cent as well as sacred in Barbary, composed, in a 
great measure, of the remains of ancient edifices. 
The number of granite pillars was reported by the 
natives (for no Christian is allowed to see it) to 
amount to five hundred. 
Shaw, who did not observe the most westerly 
ranges of the Atlas, conceives the elevation of that 
chain to have been exaggerated. In skirting the 
territories of Algiers and Tunis, it does not rise a- 
bove the loftier eminences in our own country ; and 
the greater part of its declivity is planted with vines 
and olives. On the southern side it slopes down- 
wards into a region, called the Bled-el-Jereede, or 
Dry Country, unfit for grain, and almost solely em- 
ployed in the production of dates. It is remark- 
able, although the want of water be so characteris- 
tic of this territory, that, on digging to a certain 
depth, that element is always found in such abun* 
