IM 



ALOERIK, I. 1 . 



The. 



M* *!> DHB ooonpen oj MM u 

 of Algaro U Url land next the **a i* of greater i 

 **** part. The Uuadiana flow* about 36 milea 

 MdarV The river U wide, but haUo_w. and i. . 



I Is her. uniformly lofty and steep. A few .top. below the 

 miiiiHir U UM Chair of 8t Vincent, a seat formed by Nature, and 

 an object of veneralioa to the Portuguese sailor*, from the belief of 

 tu hsvtnv been occupied by the saint himself. In the central part 

 - ^ - - * *- -* *". width *^ > * iii the 



a] | T!.. . .-. M. 

 I navigated by flat- 



i a* high a* Mertola in Alemtejo. The other river* 



have a short eonree to the sea or the Guadiana : the longest are the 

 Rio VaUermosa, which fall* into the sea at Faro, the Portimao which 

 riae* high up in th* Serra de Monchique, and enters the sea below 

 VilUnova de Portimio, and the Rio Dolcite, an affluent of the 



u. The climate i* hot in summer, but i* 

 by sss briem* from the west and south. In winter it i* 

 ilafaxlsd from the northern winds by its lofty mountain-boundary. 

 The -" *- is generally very agreeable and very healthful U has 

 little pasture*;*. produce* little grain. The mountains afford 

 nourishment for a few flock* of goat*. The forest-tree* are mostly 

 cor* trees, eei green oak*, and chestnut tree*. The plain* and 

 valleys furnish abundance of fruits, especially oranges, lemons, fig*, 

 grape*, pomegranate*, and date*. The olive* are inferior to those 

 of AJemtejo. Dried fruit*, wine, and fiah are exported. The 

 inhabitant* are generally occupied either in cultivation of the soil 

 and preparation of it* product*, or in the fisheries on the coast which 

 are the meet productive of Portugal There are no manufactures 

 deserving of mention. 



Tom- Pan i* the principal town, giving name to the district 

 It i* situated in 87* X. 1st, 7 51' W. long., at the mouth of the Rio 

 Valfarmoaa, Hi* well built, and surrounded with wall* said to have 

 been built by the Moon. It ha* a large square. The town is the 

 ** of a bishop, suffragan of the archbishop of Evora, and contain* a 

 cathedral, a pariah church, a college, three hospital*, and a custom- 

 boose. The harbour, defended by a fort, is small, and not very 

 commodious ; but the road, formed by three small islands at the 

 mouth of the river, has safe and convenient anchorage. The exports 

 are moeUy oranges, dried fruits, cork, and anchovies, Mntto England. 

 The fishery here i* very active and prosperous : population of the 

 town, 8440. Coin Marino, near the mouth of the Guadiana, has a 

 population of 2250 engaged in fishing, and in the manufacture of salt 

 from aea-water. Laffot, 45 mile* W.N.W. from Faro, is a seaport 

 town. The house* are mostly of one story only, and the harbour is 

 indifferent, and only admit* small vessel*. It is safe only when the 

 wind is from the north round to the west, being then sheltered by the 

 Bern de Monchique and Cape St-Vinoent The bay afford* anchor- 

 age for a fleet when those winds prevail The town contains three 

 churches, and ha* an aqueduct, which supplies several fountains. 

 The territory is productive in fruit, which is mostly exported to 

 liolland, and the fishery is active : population, about 7000. Sagnt, 

 a small fortified town, 4 miles S.E. from Cape St-Vinoent, stands on 

 a pf'"*" 1 * : the population is only 800 or 400. The bay of Sagre* 

 ha* considerable depth of water, and afford* good shelter ; and traces 

 remain of the old harbour, which might be restored at no great 

 expense. The castle of Sagres (tends on a headland which projects 

 boldly into th* Atlantic, where the cliffs sre precipitous on all side*, 

 and the battlement* and old tower* almost overhang the ceaseless 

 breaker*. The rnsssii* of rock on which the castle stands are in many 

 pUoe* quit* hollow, and the sea make* a loud noise as it rushes 

 through the ubtemnean channel Thccaxtlei* a fortress under a com- 

 mandant Sagre* was founded by the Infante Doin Enrique in 1416, and 

 be resided there almost continually while hi* expeditions were fitting 

 oat to make discoveries and settlements on the western coast* of Africa. 

 l*s, 82 mile* X. W. from Faro, *tand* on the east bank of the river 

 Portimao. It is one of the mo*t ancient town* of Portugal, is walled, 

 and contain* a handsome parish church : population, about 2000. It 

 wa* the capital of Algarve under the Moor*, and was then a fortified 

 and populous city. Tarira, 35 mile* N.E. from Faro, a town and 

 port, tend* on the east bank of the Seco, which is here crossed by 

 a atone bride*. Th* streets are regular, and the aquare* ornamented 

 with fountain*. There are two pariah churches, and a handsome 

 mansion for UM governor-general, who reside* here. The river i* 

 navigabl* a abort di*tenc* for boat*, and there U a very active aaa- 

 ftshery : population of the town, 0000. IVUmora <U Portimao 12 

 miles aw. from Silvea, and 35 miles W.N.W. from Faro, *tand* on 

 UM west bank of the estuary of th* Portimao, which forms perhaps 

 the best harbour on UM coast of Algarv*. The town is well built 

 and contains a population of about 8000, who are mostly employed 

 ' 



When Mires, then the capital of Algarve, wa* conquered from the 

 ?? . 118 b y 8ancho I., king of Portugal, he auumod the addi- 

 tional title of King of Algarve. The conquest of Algarve, however, 

 wa. not computed till th* reign of Alfonso III., who was proclaimed 

 king in 1248, and died in 1270. The kingdom of Algarve wa* after- 

 ward, extended *o a* to Include part of Andalucia, and also the 

 Mmrad countries and wtUement* in Africa, and then it was styled 

 Tfc* Kingdom of UM AlganreV or Algarve on this aide the Sea,' 

 *! . A1 CT T " *W** *" 8 ~-' To* province i* still occasionally 

 i by Portugneee authorities. 



ALOECIRA8, or AUI.X.IIM.II. 'the Island,' is the Arabic name 

 of the ancient Mesopotamia. [MESOPOTAMIA.] 

 S. HiviLLA. 



ALOECIRAS. [H 



ALGKH1K, I. 1 (Algeria in English), i* the name given by the 

 French to their newly-acquired posseaiions in Northern Africa, 

 which comprise the whole state formerly known as the Regency 

 of Algiers. The country is bounded E. by the Regency of 

 Tunis, W. by the empire of Marocco, a by the Great Desert, 

 and N. by the Mediterranean Sea. Its greatest length from the 

 river Zayne on the Tunis frontier to Twunt on the western 

 frontier, at the foot of the mountains of Trara, 40 miles E. of 

 the Mulloiah river, is about 600 miles; it* breadth varies from 

 100 to 800 mile*, being greatest under the meridians of Algiers 

 and Constantina, and narrowest in the west under the meridians of 

 Oran and Tlemaen. But in fact the extreme southern limits of the 

 territory of Algiers have never been accurately defined. Many tribes 

 live scattered about the country, who either have always refused to 

 acknowledge the successive rulers of the coast and capital, or whose 

 subjection is merely nominal, and confined to the payment of an 

 annual tribute. It is impossible to ascertain with accuracy the 

 population of the whole country, but, judging by approximation, it 

 cannot be leas than 2,000,000; perhaps it may ascend to nearly 

 3,000,000. 



The high-land of the Atlas runs through the whole length of the 

 Regency, and it* various ridges, terraces, and valleys occupy the 

 greater part of it* surface. Until of late years it was generally 

 assumed that the Atlas formed two continuous ridge* west to east, 

 which were called the Great Atlas, and the Little or Maritime Atlas. 

 But this was a superficial and inaccurate notion. There is no interior 

 ridge answering to the idea of a Great Atlas. The real Great Atlas, 

 Jebel Tedla, is in Marocco, and runs south to north, east of the capital 

 of that old empire. The surface of the interior of Algeria is a table- 

 land running west to east, rising abruptly from the maritime plains, 

 and sloping gently southward into the desert This table-land varies 

 greatly in breadth, and it has an average height of 3000 feet above the 

 sea. It is interspersed with knolls, or insulated summits, generally 

 rounded at the top, and none of which attains the limit of |T|>ctual 

 snow. It is also deeply intersected by valleys and ravines formed by 

 the running water*, most of which flow from south to north into the 

 Mediterranean, whilst others flow southward, and are lost in the 

 sands of the desert. The watershed between these divides the country 

 into two unequal parts, the northern and smaller being called the Tell, 

 or arable land, and the southern the Algerine Sahara, or the Country 

 of Dates, which is not a desert, but merges farther south into the real 

 Sahara,' or Great Desert 



The Little or Maritime Atlas, which rises from the Metidjn plain, 

 south of Algiers, is a buttress of the great table-land, of which Mount 

 Jurjura, east of Algiers, is an abutment In the west there is a high 

 summit called \Vannanhriz. The height of the Little Atlas, between 

 Blidah and Medeyah, is from 3000 feet to 4SOO feet 



The principal river of Algeria is the Shellif, which has its sources 

 within the borders of the Algerian Sahara, south of the Waunaahriz 

 Mountains ; it flows N.E. into Titteri, and after receiving the Midro, 

 which comes from the southernmost Atlw, forms the Titteri Gawle 

 or Lake, and then runs north until it meets the little Atlas ridge 

 not far from Medeyah; its current then turns abruptly westward 

 through the province of Mascara, and after a course of nearly 300 

 miles enters the sea below Cape Ivy, or Jebel Dis. During the rainy 

 season it overflows a great tract of country, so as to interrupt the 

 communication by land between Algiers and Oran. The other rivers 

 are the laser, to the east of Algiers ; the Zowah, or river of Bujeiah ; 

 the Wad-el-Kebeer, Ampsaga of the ancients, which flows into the sea 

 north of Constuntina ; the Seiboos, or river of Bona ; the Sig, and the 

 Tafna in the province of Oran. South of the Atlas is the Wad-od- 

 Jedee, or River of the Kid, a considerable stream which runs from 

 west to east for nearly 200 miles, and after watering and fertilising the 

 country called Zaab, and receiving a number of minor streams from 

 the central table-land, loses itself in the Melgigg, a marsh on the 

 borders of the Desert. There is another marsh of great extent on the 

 south-western borders of Constantina called the Shott " It is a large 

 plain or valley between two chains of mountains, which, according to 

 the Masons of the year, is either covered with salt or overflowed with 

 water. Several parts of the Shott consist of a light oozy soil, which, 

 after sudden rains or the overflowing of the adjacept rivcra, forms 

 quicksands, to the great danger of the unwary traveller." (Shaw's 

 ' Travels in Barbary. ) Several small streams from the north, and a 

 considerable one from the south, called Mailsh or Shaver, which has 

 it* source in the Mount Zekkar, and is said to be salt, lose themselves 

 in the Shott 



The climate of the country north of the Atlas is generally healthy 

 and temperate, but when the khamsin, or south-wind, blown, the ther- 

 iiiiinii ter rises to 100 of Fahrenheit, and even more; this, however, 

 louts only from two to five days. This wind is dry, and although 

 depressing, is not otherwise unhealthy. It carries along with it a 

 quantity of extremely fine sand, which penetrates into the houses and 

 through every crevice. From April to September the prevailing winds 

 are from the east, and the rest of the year they are mostly from the 

 west The heavy rains are in November and December ; the months 



