CHAPTER I.

ALGIERS AS A WINTER RESIDENCE.

"All the world is cheered by the sun."

'HE cry is still—they go.

THE

Richard III. i. 2.

Have you then a climate so detestable that in your land no one can venture to remain during the months of winter?" asks the ingenuous Frenchman, who knows so little of the world beyond his own immediate surroundings. Truth as well as patriotism leads us loudly to proclaim that this is not so; that, in spite of the multitudes who quit it, the mother-country is not at any time altogether desolate and deserted that a few remain behind. Yet it is certain, that year after year, vast and ever-increasing numbers of Englishmen and Englishwomen are to be found, at the first blast of chill October, or the first clinging mist of drear November, turning their backs upon their native land; making the best of their way southward, in search either of health or pleasure; content to sacrifice, for the sake of the sunny skies they hope to find, the traditional but somewhat doubtful comforts of an English winter.

They pass like a wave over Southern Europe, this migratory horde, possessing themselves of express trains by right

B

of conquest, filling to overflowing the palatial hotels that look upon the Pyrenees, establishing English laws and customs on the Riviera, and crowding the quaint old Italian cities. For the time has long gone by, when a residence at Boulogne, a winter at Tours, or, at most, a few months' stay at Montpellier, was considered all that could possibly be desired for our invalids or valetudinarians. Either climates have changed in our days, or modern ideas have made desires. less easy to satisfy—at least it would seem, that for sunshine in winter we have to go farther afield than did our fathers; nor are we altogether sure that Europe itself can satisfy all our demands.

Of Italy, for our invalids especially, we are not quite certain. We have heard of bitter weather at Rome, of snow even at Naples; we may possibly have felt the "tramontana" at Florence, and have had some experience of marble-floored bedchambers and rooms without fireplaces. Scoff as we may at the notion of English comforts, we do not care to feel the need of them. Coal-fires that scorch the face while the marrow freezes, may be matter of reproach to us among foreigners, yet we may surely find a fair retort in wood-fires that refuse to give forth any heat at all, and rooms whose terrible dimensions a score of English furnaces would scarcely suffice to warm. Against the winter climate of the Riviera we certainly cannot find much to say, but it is possible that we may think Cannes dull, pronounce Nice conventional, find Mentone melancholy, and San Remo confined.

Considerations such as these drive us still farther southward in our "flight with the swallows," and land us in a new scene of life and manners on the edge of another con

SITUATION OF ALGIERS.

3

tinent. Shall we find in Algiers all that we have pictured to ourselves as desirable for a winter residence?

First, as regards climate, the most important of all considerations for those whose chief object is 66 a search after

sunshine."

Algiers is situated in almost the same latitude as Cadiz and Malaga, that is to say, about a thousand miles due south of Paris, and four hundred miles south of Marseilles. It is natural, then, to expect a warmer climate and a more tropical vegetation than are obtained on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, although, indeed, degrees of latitude and longitude seem to have very little effect upon the actual temperature of a place, unless other circumstances are favourable. For example, within a day or two's journey from Algiers, on the slopes of the Atlas, a climate more severe than any English winter is to be found. Algiers, however, is specially favoured by her position.

The conformation of this part of Northern Africa is very peculiar, consisting of alternate mountain ranges and wide plains in lines parallel with the coast. From the sea-shore itself, rises a wooded range of hills, varying from 500 to 1,300 feet in height, called the Sahel. On the seaward slope of this range lie the town and suburbs of Algiers.

Beyond the Sahel is the vast and curiously flat plain of the Metidja; behind this the lesser Atlas, capped with snow through some months of the year; again desert-like plains, and then the Atlas, keeping guard over the great Sahara.

Algiers then, with the sea in face of her, and the mountains at her back, has the advantage of both so far as her climate is concerned. The cold drying north winds,

which are so great a scourge of Southern France, are converted by their journey over four hundred miles of sunny sea into a cool refreshing breeze. On the other hand, the burning desert wind, the Sirocco, when it reaches Algiers, which is not often, is cooled and tamed by its transit over the icy summits of the Atlas. In spite of this, during the summer months, it is still trying enough both to animal and vegetable life, but in winter it is rarely felt, and then only in a very limited degree.

The winter climate of Algiers is moderate. Dr. A. Mitchell, of Edinburgh, who wrote some interesting papers on the subject in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, gives the mean temperature from observations extending through a period of thirteen years to be

“The mean annual temperature more nearly approaches that of Malta than that of any of the more ordinary winter resorts. It exceeds it, however, by 2o, Malaga by 3o°, Madeira by 4°, Rome by 9o, Nice by 10°, and Pau by 13°. The mean annual temperature of Cairo is higher, but its winter is colder than that of Algiers. The excess of the annual mean over that of Madeira depends upon the greater summer heat of Algiers, since, as regards winter and spring, the two places are almost identical. It follows, therefore, that the difference between the coldest and hottest months, and between spring and summer, will be less in the case of Madeira, but the difference between

TEMPERATURE OF ALGIERS.

5

winter and spring is less at Algiers, and is indeed less than in any place with the meteorology of which I am acquainted."

The temperature steadily rises for one half the year, viz. from February to August, and steadily declines during the other half, from August to February.

There is in Algiers no sudden chill at sundown, such as is always experienced at Nice, and other winter stations on the Riviera a certain change, of course, there must be, but it is so gentle that even invalids are not in this country afraid of extending their afternoon rambles, or seen hurrying home, like slipperless Cinderella, if the clock has already struck the hour of return.

"It is the evenness of the temperature even more than its mildness which makes its charm. Eight months of the year-from the beginning of October to the end of May-the weather is delightful, being neither too hot nor too cold. There is no necessity for fires, although every room has a fireplace, which people of European parentage, but who are born here, sometimes make use of. The country is green, flowers bloom, birds sing, all nature rejoices in life and colour, whilst frost and snow being never seen, it is scarcely possible to believe that it is winter."-Algeria as It Is.

The following is the account of "Days in December," written by M. Fromentin, whose works on Algeria have earned him the title among French people, of the "Poet of the Sahara :

"It is almost impossible to believe that the year is dying-for us who are out of doors from morning till nightfall. Day follows day, but the impression created by the one so exactly repeats that of the preceding, that I am unable to distinguish between them. I lose count of time. It is a long drawn-out state of happiness, unknown to those who live in the agitation of our variable climates. Not a cloud-not a breath to disturb the peace of the heavens. From six in the morning to six in the evening, the sun travels calmly across spotless space whose colour is true azure. He drops into a clear heaven and disappears, leaving behind him, at the door of his bedchamber, a crimson