Ascending the Medjerdah from the often bombarded town of Porto-Farina, the traveller first arrives at Fondouk, a great centre of inland trade. Beyond Fondouk is Bon Shatar, which was once Utica. It was here that Cato the Younger died. The traces of Carthage’s most powerful rival still convey to the spectator a tolerable idea of its extent and magnificence. The sea which once washed its quays is now barely visible from the site of its citadel. The ruins of its cisterns are now used as stables, while sheep graze peacefully in its ruined amphitheatre. A learned Frenchman has written a charming volume in which he mentally rebuilds Utica,[7] the soil of which still continues to yield an apparently inexhaustible harvest to the excavator. Beyond Bon Shatar are the small towns of Jedeïda and Tebourba. In the former General Hamida Ben Ayad, a great Arab landowner, whose family has for half a century enjoyed British protection, has attempted to construct irrigation works on a somewhat large scale. In the latter is the great Moslem college of Sidi Ghars Allah. Medjez-el-Bab, Testour, and Teboursak, other towns in the Medjerdah valley, will be described in connection with the story of the French expedition. Still farther to the west is Beja, the market-town of the Khamír tribesmen. Like most Tunisian cities, it is built on a hill, and is surrounded by a crenelated wall flanked with small towers. Portions of these fortifications are evidently of Byzantine origin, and the mosque of Sidi Aïssa appears to have once served as a Christian church. The mountainous districts which lie north and north-west of Beja are the abode of the Khamírs, who are popularly supposed to have occasioned the French invasion of the Regency. Khamír-land and the Khamírs will be spoken of at length in the course of the narrative of the war. Some few miles west of Beja the Medjerdah receives the waters of its principal tributary, the Oued Mellégue. In the valley through which this stream passes is Kef (the Roman Sicca Veneria), a place which has played an important part in Tunisian history, and which is situated at a distance of some thirty miles from the Algerian frontier. It was formerly considered almost impregnable, but its powerful fortifications are now nearly in ruins, and it is susceptible of easy attack from the neighbouring heights. The _Zaouias_ or convent-sanctuaries of Kef are still much frequented, and its markets are thronged by Algerian as well as by Tunisian Arabs.