boom run out from the extremity of the bowsprit, parallel to its length, and serving to extend the bottom of the jib, and the stay of the fore-top-gallant mast. This boom, which is nothing more than a continuation of the bowsprit forward, to which it may be considered as a top mast, is usually attached to the bowsprit by means of two large boom irons, or by one boom iron, and a cap on the outer end of the bowsprit; or, finally, by the cap without and a strong lashing within, instead of a boom-iron, which is generally the method of securing it in small merchant-ships. It may therefore be drawn in upon the bowsprit as occasion requires; which is usually practised when the ship enters a harbour, where it might very soon be broken or carried away, by the vessels which are moored therein, or passing by under sail.

Jibbel-Aurez, the most auralis of the middle age, an assemblage of many very rocky mountains in Africa, in the kingdom of Algiers. Here Mr Bruce met with a race of people much fairer in the complexion than any of the nations to the southward of Britain: their hair was red, and their eyes blue: they maintain their independence, and are of a savage disposition, so that our traveller found it difficult to approach them with safety. They are called Neardia; and each of them has a Greek cross in the middle between the eyes, marked with antimony. They are divided into tribes, but, unlike the other Arabs, have huts in the mountains built of mud and straw; and are, by our author, supposed to be a remnant of the Vandals. He even thinks that they may be descended from the remainder of an army of Vandals mentioned by Procopius, which was defeated among these mountains. They live in perpetual war with the Moors, and boast that their ancestors were Christians. They pay no taxes.