My dear Father,

We received your circular yesterday morning & were surprized at its contents. You are wonderfully good to all of us—and that is more than the money.¹ As to myself I don’t know that I shall want to do anything with it except invest it. At any rate the loss of my fellowship will make no difference to me now, tho’ I hardly think it would in any case.²

We came here this morning in a most tedious train which took 2$\frac{1}{2}$ hours for 30 miles. We went along a fertile plain all the way, which is however I think very malarious— Here we are close under the mountains which have still got snow on them from the late bad weather.³ Yesterday was the most lovely day I ever saw & tho’ the Sun was very hot the air was cool. Today it has been overcast & dead calm, with a sweltering heat like the inside of a hot house. About 5 o’clk this evening it turned quite cold & we are now sitting before as good a fire as can be made out of wood. Tomorrow we are going to drive to a gorge in the mountains about 10 miles away, which is said to be beautiful, and where also are wild monkeys in the woods.⁴

This town looks commonplace & dirty, with straight streets because it is continually being destroyed by earth-quakes & has been so restored by the French. The hillside is channelled by extraordinarily deep ravines & geology seems to go on so fast that the grass has’nt time to grow much on the sides of them. This & the half-snowed covered hills makes it look rather dismal. The most interesting part of the place is the fact that it is almost entirely Arabic. A good many of the women are dressed from head to foot in scarlet with only one eye visible, which is different from the Algerians who show both eyes.⁵ From here we are going to Hammom Rira about 30 miles further on thro’ the mountains. It is a hot mineral baths & said to be a pretty place.⁶ We, or at least Frank, will return to Algiers on Friday (7^th.) to sail on Saturday.⁷

I am much too unwell to feel at all in humour for touring but I was sure that if I did’nt go now I sh^d’nt go at all

I return to the M^cL’s to stay 2 or 3 weeks more⁸

Your affectionate son | G. H. Darwin