For the greatest part of it has been built upon a peninsular promontory, as I may call it, inaccessible on all sides, except towards the S. W. where it was joined to the continent. This promontory I computed to be a good mile in circuit, lying a little inclined to the southward; but to the northward, it ended in a precipice of at least a hundred fathom in perpendicular; from whence we have a beautiful landscape over a great variety of vales, mountains, and rivers, which lie to a great distance, before it. The view, which Cuper (in his notes upon Lactantius de Mort. Persecut.) has given us of Cirta, is on the north side of it, though very incorrect, and not at all like it. To the eastward, our prospect is bounded by an adjacent range of rocks, much higher than the city; but, towards the S. E. the country is more open, entertaining us with a distant view of the mountains of Seedy Rougeise and Ziganeah. And in these directions this peninsular promontory is separated from the continent by a deep narrow valley, perpendicular on both sides, where the Rummel or Ampsaga conveys its stream. The neck of land to the S. W. where we find the principal gate of the city, is about the breadth of half a furlong, being entirely covered with broken walls, cisterns, and other ruins, which are continued quite down to the river; and carried on from thence over a strip of plain ground that runs parallel with the deep narrow valley already described. Such was the situation and extent of the ancient Cirta. But the present city has

'not

not the same dimensions, being confined to the peninsular promontory only.

Besides the general traces of a diversity of ruins scattered all over this place, we have still remaining, near the centre of the city, those capacious cisterns which received the water brought thither from Phys-geah by an aqueduct; a great part of which still remains, and is very sumptuous. The cisterns, which are about twenty in number, make an area of fifty yards square. The gate I have mentioned, is of a beautiful reddish stone, not inferior to marble well polished and shining; the side posts or pillars whereof, are neatly moulded in pannels. An altar of pure white marble makes part of a neighbouring wall, and the side of it in view presents us with a well shaped simpulum in a bold relief. The gate towards the S. E. is in the same fashion and design, though much smaller, and lies open to a bridge that was built over this part of the valley. This indeed was a masterpiece in its kind; the gallery, and the columns of the arches being adorned with cornices and festoons, ox-heads and garlands. The key-stones likewise of the arches are charged with Caducei and other figures. Below the gallery, betwixt the two principal arches, we see, in a bold relief, and well executed, the figure of a lady treading upon two elephants, with a large escallop shell for her canopy. The elephants, facing each other, twist their trunks together; and the lady, who appears dressed in her own hair, with a close-bodied garment, likę

the.

the women's riding habit of our times, raises up her petticoat with her right hand, and looks scornfully upon the city. This group, in any other situation, might well be supposed to have belonged to some fountain, às fountains or spouts of water were sometimes laid out in such ludicrous and wanton designs. Upon a stone, in the river below it, I traced out the following words, CAI. IVLI SIGNINARI: as in a wall, near the northern precipice, where we have the bases and pedestals of a magnificent portico, we see this broken inscription:

AID. III VIR. PR

RVSICADE BIS

PONTIFEX --
PERFECIT.

Below the bridge, the Rummel turns to the northward, where it runs near a quarter of a mile through a rocky subterraneous passage, designedly laid open in several places, for the greater conveniency of drawing up the water, and cleansing the channel. This, according to all appearance, seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature for the admission of the river, which otherwise must have formed a most extensive lake, and thereby laid a great part of the neighbouring country under water, before it could have found its way to the sea.

Among the ruins to the S. W. of the bridge, upon the narrow strip of land just now described, we have the greatest part of a triumphal arch,

called