M()i{()('(io. 365 



and Gliarb, are the richest aiul most densely popuhited of that 

 (•ountry. Standing on the higher phiin, the 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 li«>lds of wheat, barley, garden 

 beans, chickpea, maize, canary seed, coriandei-, lentils, pease, and the 

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

 tion introduced by Europeans within recent years. The whole is 

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

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

 a product foreign to black soil. It is rare that even miserable 

 looking fig trees or date j)alms are planted here and there. 



By far the larger portion of the Atlas Vorland belongs to the upper 

 tableland, which gradually rises from a height of 100 m. to a height 

 of (UK) to 700 nun. at the base of the Atlas Mountains that dominate 

 tlie whole horizon. Here, too, the prevailing 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 small moun- 

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

 tone doAvn the monotony of the form. IMoreover, the streams crossing 

 the entire xVtlas Vorland, especially the Tensift and the 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 travel. In the midst of magnifi- 

 cent savage scenery on a peninsida formed by a bend in the Um-er- 

 Rbia, like the Marienburg on the Moselle, stands the mighty castle 

 Bu-el-Awan, on the boundary of the 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 reached by a European, 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 younger 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 whei^e the ground is richer 

 and moister, are not wholly incapable of being cultivated for barley 

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

 features, such as the character of the soil, the presence of water 

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

 be divided into two essentially different zones — the zone of real 

 stei3i:»es and the zone of sub- Atlantic irrigated oases. The one, SO to 

 iOO km. broad, contains, it is true, some small oases, found chiefly in a 

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



