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Show Bone, on Algerian Coast, Ranks Third Among Ports Bone, or Bona, objective of the easternmost landing by American forces on the Algerian coast, ranks third among the ports of Algeria. Like the two larger ports, Algiers and Oran, Bone is the seat of a French naval station. A modern and typically French commercial port city of 85,000 people, peo-ple, Bone lies on a small bay only 60 miles west of the Tunisian border bor-der and 220 miles by rail west of the city of Tunis. It is 270 miles east of Algiers, and almost due south across the Mediterranean from Monaco at the French-Italian border. The development of Bone on its present lines dates from 1833 when its region passed from Arab to French control. The iron ores from the hills of the Constantine district in which it lies were the incentive for dredging its shallow harbor and building port facilities continuously from 1857 to 18G8. The early history of the port site is stormy. As Hippo Regius it flourished flour-ished with Carthage as one of the richest cities of Rome's African empire em-pire during the first three centuries of the Christian era. From 395 to 430, St. Augustine, native of the neighboring African coast, served as Bishop of Hippo. He made the tiny seaport famous through his writings writ-ings in philosophy and his interpretations interpre-tations of Christianity. A statue on a hill near Bone bears witness to St. Augustine's leadership in establishing estab-lishing the Christian church during the fourth and fifth centuries. |