Beyond Djebel Zana is another wide plain, called Bahirah Gournata, in the middle of which is a well. To the right is seen Ghar el-Melah, or Porto Farino, formerly an important naval station and arsenal, now neglected and almost in ruins. While we stopped to prepare our breakfast here, Lord Kingston strolled into a neighbouring swamp, and soon returned with several brace of snipe. We did not require them on this occasion, but many a good dinner did his gun find us afterwards, when we would otherwise have been reduced to hard-boiled eggs, or the remarkably tough and stringy animals which are in the habit of producing them.

The hill which bounds the north side of this plain is Djebel Tella; at its foot is a small stream; and from its summit the first view is obtained of the sea and the Lake of Bizerta, along the eastern bank of which the road now runs. At thirty-two and a half miles from Tunis is Menzel-Djemil, well named the beautiful resting-place, despite of the filth with which it is surrounded. The narrow neck of land, which here separates the lake from the sea, is a perfect garden covered with plantations of fruit and olive trees and fields of corn.

Bizerta itself is thirty-six miles from Tunis. Its name is a corruption of the Arab one, Benzerte, which is as evidently derived from its ancient one, Hippo Zarytus, or Hippo Diarrhytus, the adjunct being necessary to distinguish this city from its neighbour Hippo Regius, the modern Bone.

It was an ancient Tyrian colony, and was fortified and provided with a new harbour by Agathocles in the fourth century before Christ. It was subsequently raised to the rank of a Roman colony, as is testified by an inscription built into the wall of Bordj Sidi Bou Hadid, containing the ancient name of the place.

El-Bekri mentions that this place was conquered in A.H. 41 (A.D. 661-2) by Moaouia ibn el-Hodaidj. Abd el-Melek ibn Merouan, who accompanied him in this expedition, having been separated from the main body of the army, obtained shelter in the house of a native woman. When he became Khalifa, he wrote to his lieutenant in Ifrikia to take care of this woman and all her family—an order which was of course carried out.[117]

Marmol says that, although the city contained only 4,000 inhabitants, they frequently revolted against the Kings of Tunis and the Lords of Constantine, which was often the cause of their ruin. When Kheir-ed-din took possession of Tunis, they were the first to recognise him, and when he was expelled they killed the governor whom Mulai Hassan had sent with a garrison, and received a Turkish garrison into their fort. Mulai Hassan attacked the place by land, while Andrea Doria co-operated with him by sea, and so the place was taken by assault—‘et le Roy chastia rigoureusement les habitans qui s’estoient revoltez trois fois et qui n’avoient jamais gardé la foy ni par amour ni par crainte.’[118]

It can hardly be said that Bizerta is in a very flourishing condition; still, the presence of a hundred and fifty Europeans amongst its population of five or six thousand souls gives a certain amount of life and commercial activity to it, which no purely Mohammedan city appears to possess. There is no hotel of any kind in the place, and the few Europeans who visit it are dependent on the hospitality of their consuls. We were most cordially received by Signor Spizzichino, who is, as was his father before him, Vice-Consul of the United States. He also acts as Consular Agent of Great Britain, though he does not actually hold a commission as such.

The situation of the town is extremely picturesque, being built on each side of the canal which connects the lake with the sea, and on an island in the middle of it, principally occupied by Europeans and joined to the mainland on either side by substantial bridges. The town is entirely surrounded by walls, the entrance to the canal being protected by what in former times would have been considered formidable defences. That on the west is the Kasbah or citadel, and contains a number of residences both of private individuals and of public functionaries; on the opposite side is the fort of Sidi el-Houni, containing the shrine of that holy man. Between these the canal is embanked. The foundations are, no doubt, ancient, though the superstructure is modern. The west wall is produced as a breakwater, but it is very ruinous, and has evidently projected much further into the sea than it does at present. Its length is not sufficient to prevent the sand being drifted in by the north-west winds, whereby the canal has been so much filled up as to render it practicable only for light fishing-boats. Near the gate of the Kasbah may be seen the chain formerly used to protect the entrance. To the west of the town is an isolated fort, called Bordj Sidi Salim, built on a rocky promontory jutting out into the sea.

The only antiquities now remaining, besides the usual frusta of columns lying about and built into the corners of the street, are the two inscriptions recorded by M. Guerin,[119] one a remarkably fine milliary column in the warehouse of Hadj Mohammed Sfaxi, Janissary of the American Consulate, bearing the name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius (A.D. 161-180), and the other, which has already been mentioned, built high up in the wall of the Bordj Sidi Bou Hadid, and turned upside down, recording the ancient name of the place.

The important feature of Bizerta, however, is its lake, now called Tinja, formerly Hipponitis Pallus, which in the hands of a European Power might become one of the finest harbours and one of the most important strategical positions in the Mediterranean.[120] Its length from east to west is about eight geographical miles, and its width five and a half; the channel, which connects it with the sea, is at its N.E. angle and is about four miles long and half a mile broad; but the shallow portion which passes through the town is less than a mile in length, with a depth of from two to ten feet. Beyond, it widens out, and has a depth equal to that of the lake, from five to seven fathoms. A comparatively slight expenditure would be required to convert this lake into a perfectly landlocked harbour, containing fifty square miles of anchorage for the largest vessels afloat. At present the anchorage off the entrance is very insecure; vessels are compelled to remain in the open roadstead, and at a considerable distance from the town; there is no shelter from the prevailing bad weather, and if shipwrecks are rare, it is simply because the place is avoided by large vessels.

The lake teems with fish, which produce a yearly revenue of 180,000 piastres, or 4,500l., to the State. They are caught both by nets and in weirs of reeds erected at the narrowest portion of the straits, and are then carried on donkeys to Tunis for sale. They are not only most abundant, of excellent quality, very different from the mud-tainted produce of the Tunis lake, but of great variety. The inhabitants of Bizerta say that there are twelve principal kinds, one of which comes into season each month. This is by no means a modern idea; it is mentioned by El-Edrisi, who says: ‘When the month has expired, the species which corresponds to it disappears, and is replaced by a new one, and so on till the end of the year and every year.’[121] El-Bekri also mentions this succession of fishes, and adds a curious account of the manner in which any particular species is caught: ‘When the merchants come to buy fish, they indicate the kind and the exact number they require. The fisherman then takes a living female of the desired species, lets it loose in the lake, and follows it with his net; he is thus able to take almost the exact number he requires, and hardly ever makes a mistake.’[122]

A favourite means of catching the larger kind is for a man to station himself at the prow of a boat under one of the arches of the bridge, with a ten-pronged grane in his hand and a vessel of oil beside him. From time to time he sprinkles a few drops of oil on the surface to calm its ripples and enable him to see the larger fish passing, and these he spears with great dexterity. Wild fowl of all kinds are numerous on the lake, and for quail and snipe its banks are a sportsman’s paradise.

To the S.W. of this lake is another nearly as large, but with a depth of from two to eight feet only. It is the ancient Sisara, now called the Gharat Djebel Ishkul, or lake of Mount Ishkul, a remarkable hill of 1,740 feet high, situated at its southern extremity, the Kirna Mons of Ptolemy. This, no doubt, was originally an island, as it is now only separated from the mainland by a stretch of marshy ground. The water is almost sweet in winter, when a considerable body is poured into it by the Oued Djoumin or river of Mater, but in summer, when the level sinks, the overflow from the salt lake pours into it by the Oued Tinga, a tortuous canal which connects the two, and then its waters are not potable. The water is generally very turbid, owing to the washing of the clay banks on its margin, and the muddy streams flowing in from the plains of Mater. This lake also abounds in fish, principally barbel and alose (clupea finta), which are held in no esteem by the natives.

Lieut. Spratt observes: ‘Fresh-water shell-fish are rare in this lake, but I procured a species of unio from one of the streams flowing into it. In some of the clay banks along the north and east shores are abundance of marine fossils, principally a carduum, which, by the wasting of the cliffs, are washed along the shore, the sands of which in consequence present the singular appearance of a sea beach encircling a freshwater lake; and, until I discovered the localities whence they were derived, I was led to suppose that they had been living inhabitants of this lake at no very distant period of time, when, of course, the waters were salt, and the scarcity of fresh-water shells leant to the idea of its recent conversion from a salt to a fresh lake. The Oued Tinga is navigable for boats of not more than two feet draught. Its general depth is six feet, and its breadth 25 yards, but at the entrance to the lake of Djebel Ishkul there are shallows with a very rapid current, against which our boat had great difficulty in contending. Above the shallows there is a ferry, opposite the marabout of Sidi Ali Hassan, which is completely enveloped by a small grove of trees. This spot appears also to have been the site of an ancient town of some importance, as there are considerable remains on both sides of the ferry.’[123]

The vicinity abounds in game, and on Djebel Ishkul itself there are a number of wild buffaloes, introduced by a former Bey, which are very strictly preserved.

At the eastern base of Djebel Ishkul there are several mineral springs, which are held in great repute amongst the natives, who bathe in small pools, made by hollowing out the sand, and in these the water bubbles up from the ground. The temperature is about 110° Fahr.

The people about Bizerta seem to affect an exaggeration of the tight and ungraceful costumes with which the Tunisians disfigure themselves; and in addition they have adopted a peculiarly fashioned jacket of white wool with a hood, which they usually wear over the head, leaving the sleeves to dangle unused at the sides.

CHAPTER XVII.

General Kheir-ed-din informed me that he contemplated the creation of a museum of antiquities and Tunisian industrial products, and he begged me to examine some of the former which he had in his own garden, and others which were stowed away in lumber rooms at the Dar el-Bey, or Palace of Tunis, and at the Souk el-Djidid opposite to it. I found many fragments of interest, both of sculpture and of Punic and Latin inscriptions, but no attempt at classification, and unfortunately very few of them marked with the name of the localities where they were found. Amongst others is the white marble sarcophagus which M. Guérin[124] describes as having been found at the Mohammedia, and of which he gives the inscription.

There are also four large blocks of stone, with deep bold characters, the first three of which have evidently formed part of the same inscription. They were brought from Bou Radeh, the ancient Oppidum Araditanum:—

There is also a tombstone, very rudely carved, and only interesting as being one of the very few inscriptions found at Oudena:—

There are several more, but they have no particular interest, the locality where they were found not being recorded.

I found it impossible, for various reasons, to follow the line of march adopted by Bruce, who went direct from Tunis to the Medjerda. He thus describes the commencement of his journey:

As we had made up our minds to proceed to Susa by sea, and commence our journey thence, we sent our escort on in advance, and took our passage in one of the coasting steamers of the Rubatino Company. We arrived at Susa on April 6, and were most cordially received by our vice-consul there, Mr. Dupuis, with whose family we spent a most agreeable day, and from whom we received much assistance in our arrangements for hiring horses and mules. It may assist future travellers to know what arrangements we made in this respect. A Maltese furnished all our animals, two horses and five mules; for these three men were supplied, and we agreed to pay ten piastres, or five shillings per diem, for each animal, and to furnish their food, though we were not to be considered responsible for that of the drivers.

Susa is the ancient Hadrumetum, capital of the province of Byzacium mentioned by Sallust[125] as having been a Phœnician colony more ancient than Carthage. Trajan made it a Roman colony. It is often mentioned in the Punic and civil wars, and, like many other cities, it was destroyed by the Vandals and restored by Justinian.

After Okba had built the city of Kerouan, he remained at Susa during a considerable period. Subsequently, when the Turks took up the profitable trade of piracy, this became one of their favourite haunts, whence they made predatory excursions to the coasts of Italy.

In 1537, Charles V. sent a naval expedition from Sicily against the place, which refused to submit to his protégé Mulai Hassan. The command was given to the Marquis of Terra Nova, but after a vigorous assault he was obliged to retire and leave victory in the hands of his enemies. In 1539 another expedition was sent, commanded by Andrea Doria, with better success, but no sooner had he left than it revolted again, and welcomed the celebrated pirate Dragut within its walls.[126]

In all the frequent dissensions between the Arabs and Turks the importance of Susa as a strategic post was so great that its possession was generally the key to supreme power. The town is situated on a gentle slope rising from the sea, and presents a most picturesque appearance from a vessel in the harbour. It is surrounded by a crenelated wall, strengthened at intervals by square towers and bastions. In the interior these walls have arched recesses, which serve as shops and storehouses. At the summit is the kasbah, which it requires a special order from the Kaimakam to visit. The view from the terrace is very fine, but the building itself is entirely devoid of interest. It contains apartments, used by the military governor of the district, or Muchir, whose usual residence is Monastir, and the whole is well kept, the doors quaintly decorated in distemper, and the usual signs of dilapidation rather less prominent than in similar buildings elsewhere. Three gates give entrance to the town, the Bab el-Bahr, or Sea Gate, Bab el-Gharbi, or Western Gate, and Bab el-Djidid, or New Gate, the last of which was constructed only a few years ago. These are all rigorously shut soon after sunset.

The modern port is simply an open roadstead, very slightly protected by a curve in the coast towards the north, where was the ancient harbour, between the Quarantine Fort and Ras el-Bordj. It is said that the remains of masonry breakwaters can still be seen when the water is clear. But the accumulation of sand has rendered the water too shallow to permit vessels to make use of it. A great part of the ancient harbour is, in fact, now dry land.

The principal objects of interest in the town are:—

The Kasr er-Ribat, a square building flanked by seven round bastions, with a high tower built on a square base. It is constructed of large cut stones, and there is every reason to suppose that it was once either a Roman or Byzantine fortress. It subsequently became a sort of monastery, occupied by devotees, and perhaps also a barrack for soldiers. The name is evidently derived from the root rabata, to bind, either to religion or to military service. El-Bekri mentions it under the name of Mahres er-Ribat.

There is also an extremely curious Byzantine basilica, now turned into a coffee-shop, and called by the Arabs Kahwat el-Koubba, or Café of the Dome. It is a small building, square in plan up to about eight feet from the ground, thence rising cylindrically for about the same distance, the whole surmounted by a curious fluted dome. The cylindrical portion has four large and four smaller arched niches, with very bold cornices, springing from semicircular pilasters between them. The walls are, however, so thickly encrusted with whitewash that the architectural details are considerably obscured. A good view of the exterior of the building is obtained by mounting to the top of the Morestan, or public hospital, just opposite; the dome is decorated exteriorly by a ridge and furrow fluting, converging at the apex.

There is also a curious old building, either of Roman or Byzantine construction, now used as an oil mill. It consists of a central dome, supported on four arches, three of which give access to narrow chambers, the entrance being in the fourth; beyond the left-hand chamber, on entering, are two parallel vaulted apartments, extending the whole length of the building. The piers of the arches have originally been ornamented with columns, and the ceiling appears to have been decorated with tiles or mosaics.

In the Bab el-Gharbi, or Western Gate, a marble sarcophagus has been built into the wall, and now serves as a drinking fountain. The inscription is given by Guérin,[127] but at the present day it is quite illegible.

There is also a large reservoir, about sixty feet broad and a hundred long, with a vaulted roof supported on twelve square pillars. The Arabs declare that the arches were originally supported on marble columns, but that doubts were entertained of their solidity, and that they were consequently encased in masonry. If this is true, it proves that the vaulting is of modern construction, as there is no instance in Africa of a Roman vault or arch supported on columns. The reservoir is certainly ancient, but the pillars have a most un-Roman appearance. The only other antiquity of much interest that we observed was a handsome fragment of sculpture in alto relievo, lately found on the site of a house belonging to M. Yoones, a Jewish merchant. It is of life size, and represents a chariot being drawn probably by two horses; on the side of the chariot is a triton blowing a horn. In it is standing a man entirely clad in a toga, and holding in his left hand what appears, by the knob at the end, to be a sceptre. Unfortunately, all in front of the horses’ haunches and above the man’s neck is broken off, but the chariot is entire. To the right is seated on a bank another person whose head also is destroyed, but who, from the trace of long hair and beard remaining, and from the fact of his hands being tied behind his back, is probably a captive. He has a waist-cloth, and a mantle over his shoulders fastened in front by a brooch; the breast and arms are naked and exquisitely sculptured, every muscle in the arms and chest being anatomically accurate. Another fragment of a horse, and several pieces of cornice and architrave, were found on the same spot, which was evidently the site of some important building.

The schools, like the mosques, are considered sacred from the intrusion of Christians, but we were able to see the interior of several from the road. The walls were covered with very beautiful hangings of appliqué work on coloured cloth and velvet, similar to what are frequently seen on saints’ tombs in Algeria. The women have a costume different to what I have observed elsewhere; they are entirely muffled up in black, like sisters of charity.

The town has a prosperous appearance, the houses being well built, and as a rule less dilapidated than usual. The population is about 8,000, of whom 1,000 are Europeans and 2,000 Jews. A very considerable part of the trade is in the hands of Maltese, who are here, as everywhere else in North Africa, the most industrious and frugal, and about the best-behaved class of the population. They almost monopolise the carrying trade, with their karatonis, or light carts on two wheels, to which one good serviceable horse or mule is usually harnessed. They also keep horses and carriages for hire at all the principal towns, which are unusually well supplied in this respect. The march of events has forced the Tunisians to abate a good deal of their intolerance, but people are still alive who remember the time when driving in a carriage with four wheels was the exclusive privilege of the Bey, all others, consuls included, being forced to content themselves with two-wheeled vehicles.

It has long been the custom to employ carts as a means of transport in Tunis. Bruce received a present of one from the wife of the Bey, ‘exactly like those of the bakers in England;’ this he found exceedingly useful for the transport of his instruments, and at times, for the feeblest of his attendants. Our Maltese friend was anxious that we should take karatonis for our baggage instead of mules, but I was too old a traveller to listen to his suggestions; they do well enough on the plains, but amongst the mountains they could not advance a mile.

CHAPTER XVIII.

We subsequently journeyed for many days in this region; everywhere we found extensive traces of Roman occupation—vast Roman cities as well as isolated posts, proving beyond doubt that it was at one time capable of supporting a dense population. The entire Regency of Tunis must, during the Roman occupation, have contained little short of twenty million inhabitants, while now, the most favourable estimate places the population at not more than a million and a half. Day after day, in traversing these arid and treeless plains, intersected by watercourses in which no water flows, the soil covered with sand and stones incapable of supporting vegetable life, we pondered over the causes which had turned a region once so fertile almost into a desert. The causes, indeed, are not difficult to find: they are written by the hand of nature on every hill we traversed, and confirmed by the daily actions of the inhabitants themselves. We know that at one time the country was covered with forests. I myself have travelled for days over plains where not a tree exists, and yet where ruins of Roman oil mills were frequently met with. Ibn Khaldoun, in his history of the Berbers, says: ‘El-Kahina caused all the villages and farms throughout the country to be destroyed, so that the vast region between Tripoli and Tangiers, which had the appearance of an immense thicket, under the shade of which rose a multitude of villages touching each other, now offered no other aspect than that of ruins.’[128] Even in modern days the same destruction of forests has been continued, if not wantonly or for purposes of defence, as in the time of the early Arab conquerors, still as surely, by the carelessness of their descendants, who never hesitate to set fire to a wood to improve the pasturage, or to cut down a tree when timber is required, but who never dream of planting another, or even of protecting those which spring up spontaneously, from being destroyed by their flocks and herds.

In Bruce’s notes, written 110 years ago, frequent allusion is made to forests through which he passed, where not a tree is now to be seen, and this is a work of destruction which must go on with ever accelerating rapidity year after year.

Nothing is more certain than that forests and tracts of brushwood not only prevent the evaporation of moisture by protecting the surface of the earth from the sun’s rays, but they serve to retain the light clouds which otherwise would be dissipated, until they attain sufficient consistence to descend in rain or refreshing mists. A hillside deprived of the forest whose foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the power of generating vegetable life at all. The rich mould gets washed by winter rains into the valleys; in the summer months the sand is blown down on the top of this; succeeding rains carry down stones and gravel, till very soon all the most fertile portions of the soil disappear, leaving a residuum which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilised by an exceptional amount of moisture, which as time progresses must become rarer and rarer, like the efforts of the spendthrift to live off income, and spending every year a portion of his capital.

In several places, where deep cuttings had been made by winter torrents, I distinctly observed layers of alluvion several feet below the surface, underlying strata of water-worn stones and barren sand.

Still, in years when rain is very abundant, heavy crops are produced in some places. Mr. Wood, in a late commercial report, mentions single stalks of barley producing 80 and 120 ears, or 2,000 and 3,000 separate grains.

What the date is to the Sahara, the olive is to the Sahel; it thrives almost everywhere, and seems to content itself with the most brackish water, or even without any except that which falls from heaven during the winter months. All along the coast there are fine plantations, containing glorious old trees, but there is not the least sign of a young one being planted, or of anyone attempting to increase the size of the grove bequeathed to him by his ancestors. During all my travels in Tunis I only saw one solitary exception to this, in the plantation of General Kheir-ed-din before alluded to.

There need practically be no limit to the cultivation of the olive-tree in Tunis; the Sahel is its favourite region, but the mountains of the Tell are covered with wild trees of great size and beauty, and there is reason to believe that they would, if grafted, yield more abundantly than in the Sahel, in the same manner that the olive-trees of Kabylia in Algeria are more productive than those of the districts lower down.

The oil made in Tunis is inferior to that of Italy, and even to that now made in Algeria, but this is owing, not to any want of excellence in the fruit, but to the primitive manner in which it is manufactured, and to the want of cleanliness in subsequently storing it, in which no progress has been made during many centuries.

On our arrival at El-Djem we pitched our new tent, one of Edgington’s, for the first time, and were delighted with the ease with which it was put up, and with the great amount of accommodation it contained. I thought often of the dear friends at home who had sent it out to me; it proved an inestimable comfort during all our wanderings; but were I to make the journey again, I should be disposed to go without any tent at all, and with a much smaller amount of luggage than we took with us. It is rare that the traveller cannot find an Arab tent, an old ruin, or shelter of some kind at night, and the convenience of travelling lightly is so great as to outweigh all considerations of comfort.

At El-Djem, for instance, there was a fonduk, or caravanserail, in which a large party could find shelter; the accommodation is, of course, very simple, and the fleas abundant, but these are details which should not affect the traveller’s equanimity. The one great desideratum should be to reduce the number of baggage animals to the smallest possible number. We had sometimes to modify our journey, and to avoid places where there were interesting ruins, owing to the impossibility of obtaining sufficient barley for our horses.

There is nothing of interest at El-Djem, save its amphitheatre, which may be said to be all that remains to mark the site of the ancient city of Thysdrus, or Thysdritana Colonia. The modern village is built entirely from its ruins, and all that is visible of the city itself are a few foundations and tombs, towards the north-west.

This city is first mentioned in history by Hirtius.[129] After the defeat of Scipio at Thapsus it submitted to Cæsar, who condemned it to a fine of corn, proportionate to its small importance.[130] It is also mentioned by Pliny, by Ptolemy and in the tables of Peutinger. It was here that the pro-consul Gordian first set up the standard of rebellion against Maximin, and was proclaimed Emperor in A.D. 238, in his 80th year. He did not long live to enjoy his exalted dignity; he was defeated in battle by Capellianus, procurator of Numidia; his son was slain, and he perished by his own hands after having worn the purple for less than two months. Shaw thinks that the amphitheatre may have been founded by him in gratitude, and states that in one of the medals of the younger Gordian there is the representation of an amphitheatre, not hitherto accounted for by the medalists;[131] but the medal here alluded to is most probably one of Gordian III., bearing on one side the Coliseum at Rome, which was restored in his reign, with the inscription Munificentia Gordiani Aug.

The solidity of the masonry and the vast size of this building have induced the Arabs at various periods of their history to convert it into a fortress; it has frequently been besieged, and on each occasion, no doubt, to the great destruction of the fabric. The first instance on record is during the wars of the early Arab conquerors. After El-Kahina had defeated Hassan ibn Näaman, and driven him as far as Tripoli, the latter received considerable reinforcements from Egypt, and again set out for the conquest of Ifrikia, about 693. El-Kahina intrenched herself in the amphitheatre, where she sustained a long siege before being compelled to evacuate it. The name of Kasr el-Kahina—the palace, or fortress, of the sorceress—attached itself to the building for many ages after this event.

Bruce made careful preparations to illustrate this monument at his leisure, but none of the drawings in Lady Thurlow’s possession are completed—they are, in fact, mere rough working sketches. He says:—

The Kinnaird collection, however, contains only:—

1. A very faint drawing in pencil of exterior of amphitheatre on its major axis: the details of the lower storey have not been filled in.

2. Pencil sketch of interior on major axis.

3. Pencil sketch of interior on minor axis, showing the extent of the breach which then existed.

4. Pencil sketch, tinted in Indian ink, of general plan, covered with notes and dimensions.

5. Drawing in pencil and Indian ink of one quarter of plan of the lowest stages of amphitheatre, showing podium of arena and staircases [Pl. XI.]

6. Drawing in pencil and Indian ink of one quarter of plan of one of the upper stages of the amphitheatre.

7. Careful drawing to scale in pencil of general section, numerous notes, and dimensions on the face, and sketches of parts of the plan on the back.

8. Another rougher sketch in pencil.

9. Rough sketch in ink of section with elevation.

10. Drawing in pencil of section of external wall, with dimensions figured thereon.

The only one of these drawings sufficiently completed to admit of reproduction is the general ground plan, which is of great interest [Pl. XI.] Many sketches of the building itself have been published, generally very inaccurate; but no subsequent traveller ever took sufficiently precise measurements to permit the construction of a ground plan. I have added, by permission of an esteemed friend (Dr. Ritchie, of Belfast), two autotypes [Pl. XII. and XIII.] of photographs taken by his son, the late Mr. Frank Ritchie. One represents a general view of the exterior of the edifice, and the other the interior of the lower corridor. It was almost the last act of his life to take these photographs. ‘Sit tibi terra levis!’

This edifice offers the same exterior divisions as the principal monuments of a similar kind built elsewhere by the Romans, three outside open galleries, or arcades, rising one above another, crowned by a fourth storey with windows. But at El-Djem the architect seems to have tried to surpass, in some respects, the magnificence of existing structures. In the Coliseum at Rome the lower storey is decorated with a Doric half-engaged order, the second with an Ionic, and the third with a Corinthian. The fourth storey was pierced by windows like this one, but pilasters alone are employed, so that the general aspect is that of three storeys, gradually increasing in magnificence as they rise, crowned by a high attic, which supported the masts destined to receive the ropes of the velum. In many other amphitheatres the Doric order is alone employed. But here, at El-Djem, the orders of the first and third galleries are Corinthian; the middle one is composite; the fourth was probably Corinthian also, if it ever was completed.