260 THE MEDITERRANEAN, PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. 



Statement there are two exceptions; — namely, Palestine, which belongs 

 rather to the tropical countries lying to the east of it, and so may be 

 dismissed from our subject; and the Sahara, which stretches to the 

 south of the Atlantic region — or region of the Atla.s — but approaches 

 the sea at the Syrtis, and again to the eastward of the Cyrenaica, and 

 in whicli Egypt is merely a long oasis on either side of the Nile. 



The Mediterranean region is the emblem of fertility and the cradle 

 of civilization, while the Sahara — Egypt, of course, excepted — is the 

 traditional panther's skin of sand, dotted here and there with oases, 

 but always representing sterility and barbarism. The sea is in no 

 sense, save a political one, the limit between them ; it is a mere gulf, 

 which, now bridged by steam, rather unites than separates the two 

 shores. Civilization never could have existed if this inland sea had 

 not formed the junction between the three surrounding continents, 

 rendering the coasts of each easily accessible, whilst modifying the 

 climate of its shores. 



The Atlas range is a mere continuation of the south of Europe. It 

 is a long strip of mountain la ad, about 200 miles broad, covered with 

 splendid forests, fertile valleys, and in some places arid steppes, stretch- 

 ing eastward from the ocean to which it has given its name. The 

 highest point is Morocco, forming a pendant to the Sierra Nev^ada of 

 Spain; thence it runs, gradually decreasing in height, through Algeria 

 and Tunisia, it becomes interrupted in Tripoli, and it ends in the beauti- 

 ful green hills of the Cyrenaica, which must not be confounded with 

 the oases of the Sahara, but is an island detached from the eastern 

 spurs of the Atlas, in the ocean of the desert. 



In the eastern part the flora and fauna do not essentially differ 

 from those of Italy; in the west they resemble those of Spain; one of 

 the noblest of the Atlantic conifers, the Abies pinsapo, is found also in 

 the Iberian peninsula and nowhere else in the world, and the valuable 

 alfa grass or esparto {Sti2)a tenacissima), from which a great part of our 

 paper is made, forms one of the principal articles of export from Spain, 

 Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli. On both sides of the 

 sea the former plant is found on the highest and most inaccessible 

 mountains, amongst snows which last during the greater part of the 

 year, and the latter from the sea level to an altitude of 5,000 feet, but 

 in places where the heat and drought would kill any other plant, and 

 in undulating land where water can not lodge. 



Of the three thousand plants found in Algeria, by far the greater 

 number are natives of southern Europe, and less than one hundred are 

 peculiar to the Sahara. The macchie or maquis of Algeria in no way 

 diflers from that of Corsica, Sardinia, and other places; it consists of 

 lentisk, arbutus, myrtle, cistus, tree-heath, and other Mediterranean 

 shrubs. If we take the commonest plant found on the southern shores 

 of the Mediterranean, the dwarf palm {Chamccrops humilis). we see at 

 once how intimately connected is the whole Mediterranean region, with 



