MOKOCt'O. 8()5 



and Gharb, are the cichest and most densely populated of that 

 coiintrv. Standing on the higher plain, tlie traveler views with as- 

 tonishment the level stretches of Abda spread out at his feet as far 

 as the eye can reach. He sees waving fields of wheat, barley, garden 

 beans, chickpea, maize, canary seed, coriander, lentils, pease, and the 

 like. Here and there are blue carpets of blooming flax, an innova- 

 tion introduced by Europeans within recent 3'ears. The whole is 

 strewn Avith white kubbas, glistening at a distance, and numerous 

 little duars built of tabia ; but not a tree, not a shrub. Forests are 

 a product foreign to l)lack soil. It is rare that even miserable 

 looking fig trees or date palms are planted here and there. 



By far the larger portion of the Atlas Yorland belongs to the u.pper 

 (abh^hmd, which gradually rises from a height of 100 m. to a height 

 of 600 to 700 nun. at the base of the Atlas Mountains that dominate 

 the whole liorizon. Here, too, the ])revailing geographical feature is 

 that of the plain, but not to the same extent as on the lower level. All 

 the uplifts of the primitive degraded mountain forming snudl moun- 

 tain ranges, like the Djebilet or the Dj. Achdar, the table mountains, 

 tone down the monotony of the form. Moreover, the streams crossing 

 the entire Atlas Vorland, especially the Tensift and tlie Um-er-Rbia, 

 with their considerable fall and their strong current, frequently form- 

 ing rapids, have cut deep, winding, often canyon-like valleys into the 

 highland. These valleys are not only themselves impassable, being 

 accessible as watering places only at certain points, but they also con- 

 stitute serious obstacles in the way of ti'avel. In the midst of magnifi- 

 cent savage scenery on a peninsula formed by a l)end in the Um-er- 

 Ebia, like the IMarienburg on the Moselle, stands the mighty castle 

 Bu-el-Awan, on the boundary of tiie two tablelands, the land of habi- 

 tations and culture and the land of steppes. The castle has not, at 

 the time of my visit, ever been ivached by a Eurojjean, which seems 

 almost fabulous, though the natives assured me it is so. 



The whole upper tableland, rather distant as it is from the ocean, 

 receives only a slight rainfall, and has no black soil. The pervious 

 soil of the 3^ounger strata, as well as the fundamental strata of the 

 primitive mountains, which lack a coating of decomposed substances, 

 occasion great dryness. Consequently the country consists of steppes, 

 which, when the winters have been rainy or where the gi-ound is richer 

 and moister, are not wholly incapable of l)eing cultiA^ated for barley 

 and, here and there, for wheat. According to important geographic 

 fe{\tures, sucli as the character of the soil, the presence of water 

 sources, and the capability of cuHivation, this district of steppes may 

 be divided into two essentially difl'erent zones — the zone of real 

 steppes and the zone of sub-Atlantic irrigated oases. The one. SO to 

 100 km. broad, contains, it is true, some small oases, found chii^fly iu a 

 belt along the Um-er-Rbia and owing their existence to springs; on 



