Travels in the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis

by Sir R. Lambert Playfair

The winter at Bugeaud is severe, but in summer it has quite an European climate: and it will, no doubt, one day become a favourite sanitarium for the good people of Bone, who cannot all manage to get away to France during the hottest months. A few villas have already been built in the village and in its vicinity. After having traversed Algeria in every direction, I have seen no place to be compared with it as a summer residence. The distance is only eight miles from Bone, and the road, excellent for horse travellers, could be made fit for carriages at no great expense, especially during the summer months, when even the mud of winter attains the consistency of stone.

About a mile further on is the village of Edough, composed almost entirely of buildings connected with the cork establishment of Messrs. Lecoq and Berthom, who have a concession of 8,000 hectares of forest land. There is a clean and comfortable auberge here, where we had an excellent breakfast on our return.

Instead of continuing along the high road we turned off to the right, and followed a path, which has been made in connection with the aqueduct, that conveys the waters of the Fontaine des Princes to Bone. At the head of the valley is a charming retreat, where breakfast had been prepared for us by our friends at Ain Barbar. In this elevated spot the leaves had not yet begun to sprout in the beginning of April, but so many evergreen trees were mixed with the deciduous oak that we were in the densest shade. The sirocco can never find its way here; if we disbelieved the people who said so, we had only to look at the trees themselves, covered with moss and polypodium, and to the great variety of ferns which lined the roadside and peeped out of mossy nooks and springs. Truly it is a princely spring, and deserves such a name on its own merits; but the Orleans Princes once picnicked here before the days of the Second Empire, and the fact has been perpetuated in their honour.

An abundant and perennial stream flows down this valley, part of which has been diverted and carried in iron pipes for the supply of Bone. The ancient city of Hippo was supplied from the same source, and the Roman bridge still exists which carried the water across the ravine. It is close to where we stopped, and is covered with ferns and wild flowers, and a venerable oak tree grows from the very centre of it. The under-shrub here consists chiefly of tree-heath, myrtle, and arbutus; the wild cherries almost attain the size of forest trees, while the ground is a perfect carpet of flowers and creepers.

At about thirteen miles from Bone, all this beautiful verdure disappeared and was replaced by blackened stumps, and the weird-looking skeletons of what had once been trees. This is the result of the fatal conflagration of 1873, which created such havoc here, and in almost all the forests of Algeria. The fire commenced in the month of April after an unusually strong sirocco; and in a few hours the City of Bone was surrounded by a belt of flame thirty miles deep, which reached almost to its gates. Many lives were lost, but happily the village of Bugeaud escaped. The destruction to the forest has been very great, almost incalculable, when we consider that the prosperity of Algeria depends entirely on its rain-fall, and that every acre of clearing exercises some influence on the climate.

I am quite satisfied, that the great difference in point of fertility between Algeria and Tunis is owing to the almost utter destruction of forests in the latter country. I shall endeavour to prove this when the time comes for me to follow Bruce’s footsteps there. Fortunately many of the trees were only scorched and not entirely destroyed; they are beginning to sprout again, and the under-shrub will soon be as thick as ever. After passing this gloomy belt the character of the scenery changes; Aleppo pines begin to mingle with the oaks, the road takes a turn to the west, running parallel to the sea, and soon the burnt portion of the forest is shut out from view.

The first impression that naturally occurs to the traveller here is, that, though the whole country is an alternation of forest land and grassy slopes, there is not a sign of habitation; yet it is impossible to conceive a locality better suited for colonisation, especially for the growth of vines, which, I believe, are destined, at no very distant period, to become the staple production of Algeria. Wherever the experiment has been tried, the result has been remunerative, and the wine of excellent quality.

The mines of Ain Barbar are situated at about 25 miles from Bone. The right of working the mineral over an area of 1,300 hectares has been purchased by the Anglo-Algerian Mineral Company from the original concessionaires, and, so far as I can learn, the enterprise promises to be remunerative. The principal mineral is sulphide of copper, or copper pyrites, containing on an average 12 per cent. of pure metal, together with sulphide of zinc or blende, containing as much as 40 per cent. Small quantities of argentiferous lead ore have also been found. A large village is springing up at this spot; it is extremely healthy and tolerably cool in summer, being situated at an elevation of 1,460 feet above the sea.

There is a bridle-path by which a traveller can descend to the French iron mines of Ain Mokra, and so by railway to Bone; but the road through the forest is so beautiful that he will generally be only too glad to return by the way he came. A few lions still remain in the neighbourhood, and have been seen within a mile or two of Bone; panthers are more common, but the numbers of both are decreasing very sensibly every year.

We spent two days with our kind hosts at the mines, and it required no small amount of determination to resist their schemes for our detention, but we had a long journey before us, which must be done before the heats of summer set in, and we could not afford to linger at all the pleasant places on our way.