360 MOEOCCO. 



Mountain folk, whose subjection was difficult, have always maintained 

 their inde})endence. It was scarcely possible for the masters of the 

 N'^orland countries to secure routes of communication for themselves 

 with the other side of the mountains. They preferred to lock the 

 passes by placing castles at their ojjenings. It is a custom obtaining 

 among the Berbers from the southern part of Tunis, south of Syrtis 

 Minor, as far as the ocean, to stow their i>ro visions and valuable 

 possessions in castles, in Morocco called Tirremt, built upon safe 

 heights by a village community or by a clan. This custom in some 

 districts prevails to a striking extent. Moreover, the Berbers place 

 their villages, as a rule, on jDrecipitous heights. As a result the range, 

 with its numerous strongholds and ruins of strongholds here and 

 there, presents a remarkable aspect. 



As J. Thomson has pointed out, the Great Atlas, strictly speaking, 

 does not extend to the ocean, but only as far as the defile Asif Ig, 

 some 50 kilometers from the coast. West of this point is table-land, 

 including the provinces Mtuga and Halia. To the south, between 

 the Great Atlas and the Anti-Atlas, lies a territory, broadening out 

 to the ocean, called by the name of the Sus, the long Audinal river of 

 the Atlas, by which it is watered. It is one of the most distinctive, by 

 nature one of the most well-defined, districts in Morocco, and at the 

 same time one of the richest in natural resources. Rich in mineral 

 products, well watered, and fertile of soil, the land of Sus, which 

 even at present has the largest share in the trade of Mogador, might, 

 under a good administration, become a rich, cultivated district. The 

 oasis city of Tarudant might become a focus of trade with the South, 

 and Agadir, which has the best harbor on the ocean — closed now to 

 foreign trade — might become a prosjDerous port. 



The triangle made by the divergence of the Rif ]\Iountains and the 

 Moroccan Atlas forms the largest and most important province of 

 Morocco. At all times this country, lying between the Atlas and the 

 ocean, has been the heart of the group of lands constituting Morocco, 

 the core of the body politic. I obtained an insight into its geologic 

 history on my two last trips. The development of the present sur- 

 face features is somewdiat as follows: I*robably toward the end of 

 the Paleozoic period a precipitous mountain range was throAvn uj), 

 formed mainly of Paleozoic schist, graywacke, quartzite, and argil- 

 laceous sandstone, interspersed with granite, jiorphyrite, and similar 

 old eru])tive rocks. Where the trend of the folds is still to be dis- 

 tinguished, it is approximately parallel witli that of the Moroccan 

 Atlas. The almost ])ei-pendiculai- strata of schist form here and 

 there nearly horizontal plains, as though shaved off by a razor, but 

 above these the more solid strata of graywacke, (juartzite, and occa- 

 sionally limestone, stand up in projecting ridges. 



Tlie Djebilet, a bare, rocky mountain range lOO km. long, which 



