ARABIAN COFFEE. Ill 



In the province of Yemen, where the best Mocha cof- 

 fees are produced, the plant is cultivated in both situa- 

 tions, upland and lowland, that raised on the latter 

 being greatly inferior to that cultivated on the former 

 sites. The best being that grown on the mountain slopes 

 under the greatest difficulties and natural disadvantages 

 of climate, soil and site, the small gardens, for they 

 cannot be called plantations, being situated on terraces 

 ranged one above the other, forming an amphitheatre on 

 the mountain slope and literally covering its sides from 

 almost base to apex. The plant is cultivated throughout 

 more than half these upland districts, the finest qualities 

 of the berry being produced on the western slopes of the 

 mountains in the neighborhood of Bulgosa and Sanaar, 

 the capital of the province, at elevations estimated at 

 5,000 feet above sea-level. The soil in these situations 

 is composed chiefly of basaltic columns, the detached 

 rocks forming grand objects of landscape, especially 

 where cascades of water rush from their summits. Indi- 

 cations of volcanic action, long since extant abound; 

 basalt formations comprising a considerable portion of 

 the soil in the most favored gardens of the coffee-bearing 

 districts, while in others it is composed of Jurassic rock 

 basalt-granite patches also occurring in many of them. 

 The basalts are of great utility to the inhabitants of 

 this region, the columns, which are usually separated, 

 serving as steps where the ascent is difficult, and as walls 

 to support the gardens of coffee trees, which are prin- 

 cipally situated on the steep declivities of the mountain 

 sides, and although requiring the well-diffused heat of 

 an equatorial climate and a rich soil for its most success- 

 ful and profitable growth, it is in this region and under 

 these great disadvantages and peculiarities of soil, climate 

 and situation hot, sandy and stony that the far-famed 



