bitter personal enmities which he had excited, and the peculiar circumstances of his death, suspicions of foul play should have been entertained, but there seems to be no foundation for them. Two years after his death appeared certain Dialogues sur le Quiétisme, alleged to have been found among his papers incomplete, and to have been completed by the editor. As these dialogues are far inferior in literary merit to La Bruyère's other works, their genuineness has been denied. But the straightforward and circumstantial account of their appearance given by their editor, the Abbé Dupin, a man of acknowledged probity, the intimacy of La Bruyère with Bossuet, whose views in his contest with Fénelon these dialogues are designed to further, and the entire absence at so short a time after the alleged author's death of the least protest on the part of his friends and representatives, seem to be decisive in their favour.

Although for reasons to be given shortly it is permissible to doubt whether the value of the Caractères has not been somewhat exaggerated by traditional French criticism, they deserve beyond all question a high place among the great works of French literature. The plan of the book is thoroughly original, if that term may be accorded to a novel and skilful combination of existing elements. That the little treatise of Theophrastus may have furnished the first idea of it is doubtless true, but only a very small part of the Frenchman's work is due to the Greek. With the ethical generalizations and social Dutch painting of Theophrastus La Bruyère combined the peculiarities of the Montaigne essay, of the Pensées and Maximes of which Pascal and La Rochefoucauld are the masters respectively, and lastly of that peculiar 17th century product, the portrait or elaborate literary picture of the personal and mental characteristics of an individual. The result was quite unlike anything that had been before seen, and it has not been exactly reproduced since, though the essay of Addison and Steele resembles it very closely, especially in the introduction of fancy portraits. In the titles of his work and in its extreme desultoriness La Bruyère reminds the reader of Montaigne, but he aimed too much at sententiousness to attempt even the apparent continuity of the great essayist. The short paragraphs of which his chapters consist are made up of maxims proper, of criticisms literary and ethical, and above all of the celebrated sketches of individuals baptized with names taken from the plays and romances of the time. These last are undoubtedly the great feature of the work, and that which gave it its immediate if not its enduring popularity. They are wonderfully piquant, extraordinarily life-like in a certain sense, and must have given great pleasure or more frequently exquisite pain to the originals, who were in many cases unmistakable and in most recognizable by a society which held to the full Madame de Sévigné's views of the usefulness of "le prochain" as a butt for satirical observation. But there is something wanting in them. The criticism of Charpentier, who received La Bruyère at the Academy, and who was of the opposite faction, has usually been dismissed as one-sided, but it is in fact fully justified as far as it goes. La Bruyère literally "est [trop] descendu dans le particulier." He has neither like Molière embodied abstract peculiarities in a single life-like type, nor has he like Shakespeare made the individual pass sub speciem æternitatis, and serve as a type while retaining his individuality. He is a photographer rather than an artist in his portraiture. So too his maxims, admirably as they are expressed, and exact as their truth often is, are on a lower level than those of La Rochefoucauld, which, rather unwisely, they sometimes follow very closely. Beside the sculpturesque precision, the Roman brevity, the profoundness of ethical intuition "piercing

to the accepted hells beneath," of the great Frondeur, La Bruyère has the air of a literary petit-maître dressing up superficial observation in the finery of esprit. It is indeed only by comparison that he loses, but then it is by comparison that he is usually praised. There is no doubt that his abundant wit and his personal "malice" have done much to give him his rank in French literature, but much must also be allowed to his purely literary merits. With Racine and Massillon he is probably the very best writer of what is somewhat arbitrarily styled classical French. He is hardly ever incorrect-the highest merit in the eyes of a French academic critic. He is always wellbred, never obscure, rarely though sometimes "precious" in the turns and niceties of language in which he delights to indulge, in his avowed design of attracting readers by form now that in point of matter "tout est dit." It ought to be added to his credit that he was sensible of the folly of impoverishing French by ejecting old words. His chapter on "Les ouvrages de l'esprit " contains much good criticism, though it shows that, like most of his contemporaries except Fénelon, he was lamentably ignorant of the literature of his own tongue.

The editions of La Bruyère, both partial and complete, have been extremely numerous. Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du Grec, avec les Caractères et les Mœurs de ce Siècle, appeared for the first time in 1688, being published by Michallet, to whose little daughter, according to tradition, La Bruyère gave the profits of the book. Two other editions, little altered, were published in the same year. In the following year, and in each year until 1694, with the exception of 1693, a fresh edition appeared, and, in all these five, additions, omissions, and alterations were largely made. A ninth edition, not much altered, was put forth in the year of the author's death. The Academy speech appeared in the eighth edition. The Quietist dialogues were published in 1698; most of the letters, inIn the last thirty or cluding those addressed to Condé, not till 1867. forty years numerous editions of the complete works have appeared, notably those of Walckenaer (1845), Servois (1867), Asselineau (a scholarly reprint of the last original edition, 1872), and finally Chassang (1876); the last is one of the most generally useful, as the editor has collected almost everything of value in his predecessors. Almost everything that can be done in this direction and in that The literature of "keys" to La Bruyère is extensive and apocryphal. of general illustration was done by the late M. Edouard Fournier in his learned and amusing Comédie de La Bruyère. (G. SA.)

LABUAN, or LABUHAN, an island of the East Indian Archipelago, which has been a British possession since 1846. It lies about 6 miles off the north-west coast of Borneo, opposite the northern end of the great bay of Brunei. Rudely triangular in shape, it measures about 7 miles across the base, and has a length of 11 miles from north to south. The general flatness of the surface is broken by a number of undulating hills, none of which, however, exceed 90 feet in height. At the time of the first settlement most of the ground was occupied by virgin forest, in which camphor trees of noble proportions were conspicuous; but nearly the whole of this has been destroyed either by human effort or by jungle fires. The soil is very poor, except in the valleys of the larger streams. Of the total area, estimated at over 45 square miles, or 29,350 acres, 21,000 acres are supposed to be capable of cultivation; but of this not more than 1500 acres are sown with rice, the only crop attempted on a large scale in the island. The cocoa-nut flourishes to no small profit on the little island of Daat; and the African oil palm promises well. At the time of its occupation a brilliant future was prophesied for Labuan: its harbour was to make it a second Singapore, and its coal beds were to prove an unfailing source of wealth. Such anticipations are far from having been realized. Though the workable coal in the island has been estimated at no less than 400,000,000 tons, the mines have commercially proved an utter failure. The Scottish Oriental Coal Companythe fourth of its kind-came to an untimely end in 1880; from 1868 it had raised 53,741 tons of clean coal, each

ton costing about 72s. and selling for not more than 25s. or 30s. The want of machinery strong enough to keep the workings dry is assigned as one of the chief reasons of the collapse. The coal, which appears to be of Tertiary formation, is of good quality; the mines are on the north end of the island near the village of Lubok Tamiang. The general trade of Labuan consists mainly of the importation and re-exportation of Bornean produce; and most of the Labuan merchants are from Singapore houses. There are several factories for the preparation of sago flour. The total burden of the vessels entering the port in 1879 was only 10,787 tons, of which 8516 was due to steam ships. The population, which in 1861 was 2373 (1627 males, 701 females), was 5731 (3414 males, 2317 females) in 1881. It includes Chinese, Klings, chiefly from Karikal in French India, Malay fishermen, and Kudayans and Tutongs from Borneo. Port Victoria, the principal settlement, has no municipal government.

The colony is now self-supporting. The Chinese have schools for their own children; and Sir Henry Bulwer established in 1873 a school for the teaching of Malay and English. The temporary diocese of Labuan includes, not only Sarawak in Borneo, but also Singapore (which is 770 miles distant); and the church of St Andrews in that city is the cathedral of the see. Convicts have been sent to Labuan from the Straits settlements since 1866. See Keppel, Visit to Indian Archipelago, London, 1853; Mundy, Narrative of

Events in Borneo, London, 1848; Burbidge, Gardens of the Sun, London, 1880. LABURNUM is the specific name of a familiar tree of the genus Cytisus, Dec., of the pea family or Leguminosa. It is a native of the mountains of France, Switzerland, southern Germany, northern Italy, &c., has long been cultivated as an ornamental tree throughout Europe, and was introduced into north-east America by the European colonists. Gerard records it as growing in his garden in 1596 under the names of anagyris, laburnum, or beane trefoyle (Historie of Plants, p. 1239), but the date of its introduction into England appears to be unknown. In France it is called l'aubour-a corruption from laburnum according to Du Hamel-as also arbois, i.e., arc-bois, "the wood having been used by the ancient Gauls for bows. It is still so employed in some parts of the Mâconnois, where the bows are found to preserve their strength and elasticity for half a century" (Loudon, Arboretum, ii. p. 590).

Several varieties of this well-known tree are cultivated, differing in the size of the flowers, in the form of the foliage, &c., such as the "oak-leafed" (quercifolium), pendulum, crispum, &c. One of the most remarkable forms is C. Adami, Poir. (C. purpurascens, Hort.), which bears three kinds of blossoms, viz., racemes of pure yellow flowers, others of a purple colour, and others of an intermediate brick-red tint-all three kinds being borne by one and the same tree. The last are hybrid blossoms, and are sterile, with malformed ovules, though, curiously enough, the pollen appears to be good. The yellow and purple "reversions" are fertile. It originated in Paris in 1828 by M. Adam, who inserted a "shield" of the bark of C. purpureus, Scop., into a stock of C. Laburnum, L. A vigorous shoot from this bud was subsequently propagated. Hence it would appear that the two distinct species mentioned above became united by their cambium layers, and the trees propagated therefrom subsequently reverted to their respective parentages in bearing both yellow and purple flowers, but produce as well blossoms of an intermediate or hybrid character. Such a result, Mr Darwin observes, may be called a "graft-hybrid." For full details see

Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication. The laburnum has highly poisonous properties. A case is recorded of nearly fatal results to several boys who masticated the roots on finding they tasted like liquorice, which is a member of the same family as the laburnum. It has proved fatal to cattle, though hares and rabbits eat the bark of it with avidity (Gardener's Chronicle, 1881,

vol. xvi. p. 666). The seeds also are highly poisonous, possessing emetic as well as narcotico-acrid principles, especially in a green state. Gerard (loc. cit.) alludes to the powerful effect produced on the system by taking the bruised leaves medicinally. Pliny records that bees will not visit the flowers (N. H., xvi. 31), but this may be an error, for Mr Darwin found by experiment that insects play an important part in the fertilization of the laburnum. The heart wood of the laburnum is of a dark reddishbrown colour, hard and durable, and takes a good polish. Hence it is much prized by turners, and used with other coloured woods for inlaying purposes. The laburnum has been called false ebony from this character of its wood. The roots are subject to a peculiar disease, not at all uncommon in other members of the Leguminosa, the fine rootlets swelling into minute club-shaped processes called exostoses, resembling coral-branches in shape. Large masses of such, one or two inches in diameter, may be found at the extremities of the roots of old laburnum trees. are apparently caused by a fungus which appears to be ubiquitous, as the disease is rarely, if ever, known to be absent, though it does not seem to cause much if any injury to the health of the plants it attacks. See Studier öfver Leguminosernas rotknolär, 1874, by Dr Jacob Erikssen; also Gardener's Chronicle, 1879, xi. p. 209, and xii. p. 112.

They

To

LABYRINTH. I. The legendary labyrinth is one of the clearest examples of the close relation between mythology and the early stages of the industrial arts. The word λaßúpivoos is derived from the Aaúpa or passages of a mine; the digamma before the p has become in the latter a vowel, while in the former it retains its consonantal value. The mines of Greece, like those of Thrace and the Egean Islands, were probably first worked by the Phoenician traders; and the simple-minded natives regarded the strange holes in the ground with wonder and awe. the natural fear of darkness was added the invariable tendency of the uneducated to regard as supernatural the power conferred by superior knowledge; moreover, the god of the riches of the lower world was also the god of death and the dead. Their fear expressed itself in tales of the extraordinary ramifications of the dark passages and of the danger to which any heedless intruder into them was exposed. The maze of passages was called a labyrinth ; the word became a proper name and gained a life and meaning of its own in legend, quite unconnected with its original application. It retained a more antique form, as proper names frequently do, whereas the mining term Aaúpa lost the older character of the digamma. It must have been comparatively late before the word labyrinth acquired this new independence and connotation. The best-known instance of its mythic character is found in the legends of Crete. It was interwoven with the tales, partly founded on historical events and partly derived from ancient religion, which clustered round the name of Minos. The skilful workman, Dedalus, who sums up all the legendary conceptions of skill in handicraft, made for King Minos a labyrinth, in the centre of which the Minotaur was placed. No one who entered this labyrinth could find his way out again; he became the prey of the monster. The seven youths and seven maidens sent regularly by the Athenians as tribute were thus devoured, until Theseus slew the Minotaur, and escaped out of the labyrinth by the help of the clue which Ariadne had given him.

Pliny says that there had been in Crete a building called the labyrinth, of which no remains existed in his time; but Hoek has proved quite certainly from the discrepancies and contradictions in accounts and in representations on coins that it had never a real existence. The rocks of Crete are full of winding caves, and these gave the first hint of the legendary labyrinth. This labyrinth is, by the

older writers, placed beside Cnossus, and is figured on coins of that city. Late writers, such as Claudian, represent it as being beside Gortyna, and there is a wonderful set of winding passages and chambers in the rocks near that place, which is still pointed out as the labyrinth. When the name had once acquired this meaning, it was applied to several real buildings, of which the following are the most famous. 1. The Egyptian labyrinth, beside the town of Arsinoe or Crocodilopolis, was in two stories, one of them underground, and contained three thousand rooms. Strabo thinks it was built as a common place of meeting for the people of the various nomes; Herodotus and Diodorus say that it was the burial place of the twelve kings who ruled Egypt about 700 B.C. Müller (Hist. Greek Art, § 50-2) also thinks the object of such buildings must have been sepulchral. 2. The Samian labyrinth was built by Theodorus, one of the Samian school of sculptors, for the tyrant Polycrates. It had a hundred and fifty columns, and Pliny says that some scanty remains of it existed in his time. 3. The Lemnian labyrinth, mentioned by Pliny, seems to be a confusion with the Samian (cf. I'liny, xxxvi. 19, 3 with 83). 4. The Italian labyrinth was a series of chambers in the lower part of the grave of Porsenna at Clusium. Some maintain that this tomb has been found in the mound named Poggio Gajella near Chiusi.

See Herod. ii. 148; Str. p. 811; Plin. xxxvi. 13 and 19; Muller, Etrusker; Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria; Hoek, Kreta. Cockerell (Travels), and Prokesch (Denkwurdigkeiten) describe the so-called labyrinth of Gortyna.

II. In gardening, a labyrinth or maze means an intricate network of pathways enclosed by hedges or plantations, so that those who enter become bewildered in their efforts to find the centre or make their exit. It is a remnant of the old geometrical style of gardening, but is yet occasionally introduced into pleasure grounds. There are two methods of forming it. That which is perhaps the more common consists of walks, or alleys as they were formerly called, laid out and kept to an equal width or nearly so by parallel hedges, which should be kept so close and thick that the eye cannot readily penetrate through them. The task is to get to the centre, which is often raised, and generally contains a covered seat, a fountain, a statue, or even a small group of trees. After reaching this point the next thing is to return to the entrance, when it is found that egress is as difficult as ingress. To every design of this sort there should be a key, but even those who know the key are apt to be perplexed. Sometimes the design consists of alleys only, as in fig. 1, published in 1706 by

FIG. 3.-Labyrinth at Versailles. wildernesses. To this latter class belongs the celebrated labyrinth at Versailles (fig. 3), of which Switzer observes, that it "is allowed by all to be the noblest of its kind in the world."

Whatever style be adopted, it is essential that there should be a thick healthy growth of the hedges or shrubberies that confine the wanderer. The trees used should be impenetrable to the eye, and so tall that no one can look over them; and the paths should be of gravel and well kept. The trees chiefly used for the hedges, and the best for the purpose, are the hornbeam among deciduous trees, or the yew among evergreens. The beech might be used instead of the hornbeam on suitable soil. The green holly might be planted

of James I. Another is said to have existed at Wimbledon House, the seat of Earl Spencer, which was probably laid out by Brown in the last century. There is an interesting labyrinth, somewhat after the plan of fig. 2, at Mistley Place, Manningtree, the seat of the Rev. C. F. Norman.

as an evergreen with very good results, and so might the American arbor vitæ if the natural soil presented no obstacle. The ground must be well prepared, so as to give the trees a good start, and a mulching of manure during the early years of their growth would be of much advantage to them. They must be kept trimmed in or clipped, especially in their earlier stages; trimming with the knife is much to be preferred to clipping with shears. It is not advisable to allow the hedge to run up too quickly or irregularly, so that any plants getting much in advance of the rest should be topped, and the whole kept to some 4 feet or 5 feet in height until the lower parts are well thickened, when it may be allowed to acquire the allotted height by moderate annual increments. cutting, the hedge (as indeed all hedges) should be kept broadest at the base and narrowed upwards, which prevents it from getting thin and bare below by the stronger growth being drawn to the tops.

In

The maze in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace (fig. 4) is considered to be one of the finest examples in England. It was planted in the early part of the reign of William III., though it has been supposed that a maze had existed there since the time of Henry VIII. It is constructed on the hedge and alley system, and was, we believe, originally planted with hornbeam, but many of the plants have died out, and been replaced by hollies, yews, &c., so that the vegetation is mixed. The walks are about half a mile in length, and the extent of ground occupied is a little over a quarter of an acre. The centre contains two large trees, with a seat beneath each. The key to reach this resting place is to keep the right hand continuously in contact with the hedge from first to last, going round all the stops.

Fig. 5.

The maze in the gardens at Somerleyton Hall, near Lowestoft (fig. 5), was designed by Mr John Thomas. The hedges are of English yew, and are in very fine condition, without a break or flaw. They are about 6 feet high, and have been planted a little over thirty years. In the centre is a grass mound, which is raised to the height of the hedges, and on this mound is erected a pagoda, which is approached by a curved grass path. At the two corners on the western side are banks of laurels some 15 or 16 feet high, which are kept trimmed with the knife. On each side of the hedges throughout the labyrinth is a small strip of grass.

There was also a labyrinth at Theobald's Park, near Cheshunt, when this place passed from the earl of Salisbury into the possession

FIG. 6.-Labyrinth in Horticultural Society's Garden.

When the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington were being planned, the Prince Consort, the president of the society, especially desired that there should be a maze formed in the ante-garden, which was made in the form shown in fig. 6. This labyrinth, which was designed by the late Lieut. W. A. Nesfield, was for many years the chief point of attraction to the younger class of visitors to the gardens; but at last it was allowed to go to ruin, and had to be destroyed. (T. MO.)

LAC is a compound resinous and tinctorial incrustation formed on the twigs and young branches of various trees by an insect, Coccus lacca (Carteria lacca of Signoret), which infests them. The species of trees upon which it is principally obtained include Urostigma religiosa, U. indica, Croton laccifera, C. sanguifera, Aleurites laccifera, Carissa spinarum, Mimosa cinerea, Erythrina indica, Inga du'cis, Butea frondosa, Zizyphus Jujuba, Vismia laccifera, Feronia elephantum, and Vatica laccifera. Lac is a product of the East Indies, coming especially from Bengal, Pegu, Siam, and Assam. The insect which yields it is closely allied to the cochineal insect, Coccus cacti, kermes, C. ilicis, and Polish grains, C. polonicus, all of which, like the lac insect, yield a red dye colour. The term lac (Laksha, Sanskrit; Lakh, Hindi) is the same as the numeral lakh a hundred thousand--and is indicative of the countless hosts of insects which make their appearance with every successive generation. Two evolutions of the young of the lac coccus make their appearance annually, one about the beginning of July and the other early in December. As soon as the minute larval insects make their appearance they fasten in myriads on the young shoots, and, inserting their long proboscides into the bark, draw their nutriment from the sap of the plant. The insects begin at once to exude the resinous secretion over their entire bodies, which forms in effect a cocoon, and, the separate exudations coalescing, a continuous hard resinous layer recularly honeycombed with small cavities is deposited

never escape.

over and around the twig. From this living tomb the female insects, which form the great bulk of the whole, After their impregnation, which takes place on the liberation of the males, about three months from their first appearance, the females develop into a singularly amorphous-like organism consisting in its main features of a large smooth shining crimson-coloured sac-the ovarywith a beak stuck into the bark, and a few papillary processes projected above the resinous surface. The red fluid in the ovary is the substance which forms the lac dye of commerce, and, when the young are allowed to hatch out, the greater part of this colouring matter is lost, and only a dead resinous substance remains on the twig. To obtain the largest amount of both resin and dye-stuff therefore it is necessary to gather the twigs with their living inhabitants in or near June and November. Lac encrusting the twigs as gathered is known in commerce as "stick lac"; the resin crushed to small fragments and washed free from colouring matter constitutes "seed lac"; when melted, strained through thick canvas, and spread out into thin layers, this is known as "shell lac," and it is in this last form that the resin is usually brought to European markets. Shell lac, which varies in colour from a dark amber to an almost pure black appearance, may be bleached by dissolving in a boiling lye of caustic potash and passing chlorine through the solution till all the resin is precipitated. Bleached lac takes light delicate shades of colour, and dyed a golden yellow it is much used in the East Indies for working into chain ornaments for the head and for other personal adornments. Lac is a principal ingredient in sealing wax, and forms the basis of some of the most valuable varnishes, besides being useful in various cements, &c. (see LACQUER). Average stick lac contains about 68 per cent. of resin, 10 of lac dye, and 6 of a waxy substance. The resin of lac is a composite body, whose constituents behave differently in presence of chemical reagents.

Lac dye, which is separated by washing stick lac in hot or cold water or in a weak alkaline solution, and dried either by exposure over a fire or in the sun, comes into commerce in the form of small square cakes. It is in many respects similar to, although not identical with, cochineal, and will dye less brilliant shades than that colour. It contains about 50 per cent. of colouring matter, with 25 per cent. of resin and 22 per cent. of earthy admixture, &c. It is used for dyeing silk and wool, for which purposes it is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid or somewhat stronger hydrochloric acid; and the substance to be dyed is prepared with a mordant of strong lac spirit, which consists of a solution of stannous chloride. Lac dye has been used from time immemorial in the East, but the knowledge of the substance in the West is comparatively recent. It was first brought to Europe by the East India Company as a substitute for cochineal. The best lac dye comes from Calcutta. Lac lake is an alumina lake containing about 50 per cent. of colouring matter, 40 per cent. of resin, and 9 or 10 per cent. of alumina.

His

industry and skill. He was rewarded by admission to the Academy, and the appointment of mathematical professor in Mazarin college, where he worked diligently for some years in a small observatory fitted up for his use. desire to observe the southern heavens led him to propose, in 1750, an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, which was officially sanctioned, and fortunately executed (see ASTRONOMY, vol. ii. p. 757). On his return in 1754 he was distressed to find himself an object of public attention, and withdrew to his former retreat in Mazarin college, where he died, March 21, 1762, of an attack of gout aggravated by unremitting toil. Lalande said of him that, during a comparatively short life, he had made more observations and calculations than all the astronomers of his time put together. And, his carefulness equalling his rapidity, the quality of his work rivalled its quantity. The rectitude of his moral character earned him universal respect, and his career ranks, if not amongst the most brilliant, amongst the most useful and honourable in the annals of science.

His principal works are―Astronomix Fundamenta, 1757; Tabulæ Solares, 1758, giving, for the first time, corrections for planetary perturbations; Calum australe stelliferum, 1763, a catalogue of 10,035 southern stars; Observations sur 515 étoiles du Zodiaque, 1763; Leçons élémentaires de Mathématiques, 1741, frequently reprinted; ditto de Mécanique, 1743, &c.; ditto d'Astronomie, 1746, 4th edition augmented by Lalande, 1779; ditto d'Optique, 1750, &c. Calculations by him of eclipses for eighteen hundred years were inserted in L'art de vérifier les dates, 1750; he communicated to the Academy in 1755 a classed catalogue of forty-two southern nebula, and gave in vol. ii. of his Éphémérides, 1754, practical rules for the employment of the lunar method of longitudes, proposing in his additions to Bouguer's Traité de Navigation, 1760, the model of a nautical almanac.

LA CALLE, or LA CALA, a seaport town of Algeria, in the province of Constantine, the centre of the Algerian and Tunisian coral fisheries. It lies 40 miles east of Bone and 10 miles from the Tunisian frontiers. The harbour is small and inconvenient, but it is proposed to construct a military port and harbour of refuge a little to the west. La Calle proper, or the old fortified town, is built on a ridge of rocks about 400 yards long, connected with the mainland by a bank of sand; but a new town has grown up along the coast. Besides the coral fisheries the curing of sardines is largely carried on. The population, without the garrison, was 3308 in 1871.

La Calle is mentioned as Mersa el Kharez by El Bekri (see Journ. Asiat., 1859), and was even then the residence of coral merchants. In the early part of the 18th century it was the seat of an English trading factory, but on the failure of the company the FrenchAfrican Company moved their factory from Bastion de la France to La Calle The company was suppressed in 1794. In 1806 Mr Blanckley, British consul-general at Algiers, obtained the right of occupying Bone and La Calle for an annual rent of £11,000; but though the money was paid for several years no practical effect was given to the agreement. The French regained possession in 1817, were expelled during the wars of 1827, but returned and rebuilt the place in 1836.

See Abbé Poiret, Voyage en Barbarie, Paris, 1787; Broughton, Six Years in Algeria; and Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce.

emerged from the eastern and protected side of the reef, and have gradually extended towards the west over the shallow lagoon of which the rest of the space within the barrier-reef consists. The islands are small, none exceeding a mile in breadth, and lie so low that they would be hardly