[80]L. Renier, Insc. No. 1480.
[81]Rev. Afr., vol. xx. p. 164.
[82]L. Renier, Insc. No. 1479.
[83]Léon Renier, Insc. No. 1520.
CHAPTER XI.
LEAVE TIMEGAD — FOUM KOSENTINA — MEGALITHIC REMAINS — OUM EL-ASHERA — EL-WADHAHA — ASCENT OF CHELLIA — AIN MEIMOUN — LIONS.
On May 3 we left Timegad, not without considerable regret that we could not afford to spend a longer time there. We would fain have made some excavations, as there is no more promising field for antiquarian research in Algeria, but the season was advancing, and we were compelled to move onwards. We crossed the Oued Taga and the unusually rich and well-watered plain of Firis, the west side of which is bounded by the Oued Foum Kosentina, River of the Gorge of Constantine. This is formed by two streams, the Seba Rekoud and the Oued el-Ahmer, which have worn for themselves deep channels, the precipitous banks of which are in some places five or six hundred feet high. A remarkable tongue of land is enclosed between them, which, probably on account of a certain general resemblance to the plateau on which the city of Constantine is situated, has been named Ktäa Kosentina, and the river Oued Foum Kosentina.
The numerous Roman remains all over the plain of Firis prove that no part of the Aures was more thoroughly colonised by this great people. Lower down the plain, the river formed by the junction of the Oued Taga and the Foum Kosentina, takes the name of Oued Rabooäa, on which are the Bordj and flour-mill of our friend Si Bou Dhiaf. The latter is of French construction, and brings him in a very considerable revenue. The native mills are of the rudest construction, and are rapidly falling into disuse wherever a European one has been erected.
The whole of this district is of the deepest interest to the student of pre-historic archæology. The hills on the west and south of Firis, Djebel Kharouba and Djebel Bou Dreicen are high, barren of undergrowth but well covered with small trees, especially the Betoum, or Pistachia Atlantica. The rock crops out in every direction, and is a sandstone with a very laminated stratification, capable of being easily detached in large slabs of no great thickness.