A CLOUD-CAPT CITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2779, 19 June 1907, Page 90

A CLOUD-CAPT CITY.

Br a Bamxzx.

Probably the most strikingly situated oHy in the- whole world is Constantine, an inland town of North Africa. Perched, at an elevation of more than 2000 ft, on the summit of a vast, towering block of limestone rock, it is almost completely encircled by a narrow gorge or canyon, cut deep into the mountains, through which swirls and eddies a furious, raging torrent, its perpendicular walls, in which a footpath has been hollowed out in order to enable visitors to inspect? this wonder of Nature, rising sheer from die foaming flood more than 800 ft. Descending this precipitous pathway, now under overhanging ledges of rock, now on tho very edge of a terrible ° precipice, beneath which the boiling surge is wildly foaming in a very paroxysm of turmoil, or now round the spur of a jutting craig, the visitor in awestruck and bewildered at the majestic grandeur and the august solemnity of the scene. Far beneath, the turbulent riveT — after the continuous rains and the abnormal snows of the past winter much fuller and grander than usual — swirling round a sharp corner of the ravine, leaping over a steep escarpment into a boiling caldron beneath, and then with a throbbing plunge disappearing in the semi-darkness of a Nature-hewn tunnel somrped out of a projecting bastion of the solid rock. Above is the upreared beetling cliff rising in savage grandeur upwards towards the cloud's, on its summit the white houses of Constantino, or the rounded dome of a mosque, built upon the very edge of the precipice ; or the sharp silhouette of seme stately palm trees or graceful and lofty eucalyptus.

Lower down, on the other side of th« town, is a most notable and imposing waterfall. Here the river is apparently very deep, pursuing its rapid (yrarse almost unruffled, then curling over the lofty ledge with majestic sweep the deluge of waters plunges info' the billow-tossed, yawning abyss far beneath with a deafening roar, while a cloud of foam and wind-driven spray, rises high in air far above the watery hurricane beneath.

Truly, this earth, of ours is adorned and beautified with a lavish hand ; and well may ' the heiraicha of high heaven have sung for joy at the contemplation of its beauties. And yet He who made it all (for by Him— Jesus — all things were and «ie created) was content to bleed and to die for us and on our behalf ; thus paying the penalties dua by us to Eternal Justice, and assuring for those who believe m Him an eternity of supernal joys.