Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/298

 242 NORTH- WEST AFRICA. which may be recognised figures of men, dogs, cattle, and an ostrich. Farther north was the site of lioktiia, in a district strewn with dolmens and other pre- historic monuments, including over three thousand graves, to which the natives apply the term hanut, or " shop." From these have been recovered some skeletons of great interest for the study of the various Algerian races. A hill on the right bank of the Seybouse, below the confluence of the Sherf and Zenati, is occupied by the town of Guelma, heir to the name, if not the site, of the Iloman Ca/ania, where Punic was still spoken in the fifth century. Enclosed bv a verdant belt of vineyards and olive groves, Guelma, which stands on the border of the Arab and Berber territories, is one of the pleasantest places in Algeria. Over its valley are dotted the picturesque hamlets of Ain-Tufa, Heliopo.ls, Petit, and Millesimo, and in the neighbourhood are the copious mineral springs of Hammam- el-Bei(l(t, in a basin surrounded with Roman ruins embowered in foliage. The charming village of Ducicier commands the right bank of the Seybouse opposite the junction of the two railways from Algiers and Tunis. Thanks to the facilities of communication and the fertility of the soil, numerous European settlements have sprung up in the Lower Seybouse Valley. Such are Jiarral, Moudoii, noted for its tobacco, Duzervilk, Wed Beshes, Merdes or Combes, Zerizer, Handon, Monis, and Blaiidan, and in the neighbouring Mebuja valley the town of Penthierre. Bona — Heruillon. These stations become more numerous as we approach the city of Bona, which, although preserving the name of the Roman Hippon {Hippo), the Uhha of the Carthaginians, does not occupy the actual site of that ancient city. Hippo Regius, where the famous Bishop Augustine resided for thirty-five years, and which was overthrown by the Vandals in 431, the year after his death, stood over a mile from the present town, on a hill commanding a fine prospect of the blue Mediterra- nean waters and surrounding district. A few ruins of the Glisia Rumi, or " Church of the Romans," are still scattered on the side of the hill, and near its base is the bridge over the Bujema (Bu-Jemaa) stiU resting on its old foundations. Owing to the constant encroachments of the alluvial plain formed by the Seybouse, the city has had to be rebuilt at some distance north of the ruins of Hippo. The port, which two thousand years ago opened at the foot of the hill, has been gradually shifted to the north ; and the shipping, instead of penetrating into the natural harbour at the river's mouth, has to anchor off the coast, under the precarious shelter of the headland on which now stands the kasbah or citadel of Bona. The Arab quarter stood on the slopes of this eminence; but since the French conquest it has spread beyond the enclosures over the low-lying plain which stretches in the direction of the Seybouse. Between the old and new quarters a handsome boulevard runs from the sea to a wooded height, beyond which it is to be continued farther inland. Thanks to its well-kept streets, shady walks, and pleasure-grounds, Bona is one of the most agreeable places in AJgeria, and as