24:0 



FRANCE. 



sisted of 58,910 men, inclusive of 2,278 officers, 

 with 13,470 horses. The territorial army consists 

 of 10 battalions of zouaves, 3 squadrons of cavalry, 

 and 10 batteries of artillery. A new force organ- 

 ized for operations south of Algeria consists of the 

 Sahara tirailleurs and spahis. 



There were 3,644,614 persons dependent on agri- 

 culture, 207,310 of them Europeans, in 1896. The 

 extent of land cultivated was about 20,000,000 

 hectares. The production of hard wheat in 1898 

 was 5,780,719 quintals; of soft wheat, 1,598,598 

 quintals; of barley, 9,028,420 quintals; of oats, 

 874,402 quintals. Most of the soft wheat and of 

 the oats is grown by Europeans, but less than 20 

 per cent, of the hard wheat for which Algeria is 

 famed. There were 141,189 hectares under vines, 

 producing 4,554,354 hectolitres of wine. More than 

 half the vineyard proprietors are Europeans. The 

 < ;<>\ eminent owns the cork forests, covering 281,400 

 hectares, which produced 5,270 tons of cut corks 

 in 1898. The production of tobacco on 7,015 hec- 

 tares was 5,324,525 kilogrammes. The cultivated 

 olive trees number 6,500,000. The number of 

 horses and mules in 1898 was 345,139; of asses, 

 255,870; of camels, 205,287; of cattle, 1,004,175; 

 of sheep, 7,026,290; of goats, 3,526,508. Natives 

 own 93 per cent, of the animals. The forests cover 

 3,247,692 hectares. Of those that are accessible and 

 utilized only 468,395 hectares are owned by private 

 individuals. There are 14 paying iron, zinc, lead, 

 copper, and antimony mines. The iron ore raised 

 in 1897 was 447,000 tons, valued at 3,316,000 francs; 

 of zinc and lead ore, 32,445 tons, valued at 1,524,200 

 francs. Phosphate beds are worked by English 

 and other companies, and new ones are being dis- 

 covered frequently. The principal production is 

 at Tebessa. The total export in 1897 was 228,141 

 tons, valued at 4,562,820 francs. Pottery, leather 

 manufacture, weaving, and working esparto are 

 considerable industries. The general imports in 

 1898 had a total value of 302,223,058 francs, of 

 which 225,535,389 francs were imports from France. 

 The value of the general exports was 285,768,687 

 francs, of which 232,136,851 francs were exported 

 to France. The special imports were valued at 

 290,059,706 francs; special exports, 265,543,209 

 francs. The values in francs of imports from and 

 exports to different countries in the special trade 

 of 1898 are given in the following table: 



The values of the chief imports in 1898 were 

 16,755,725 francs for cattle, 11,945,199 francs for 

 cereals, 5,881,435 francs for coffee, 3,836,774 francs 

 for timber, 3,166,454 francs for coal, 1,644,953 

 francs for hides, 1,488,953 francs for machinery, 

 1,408,719 francs for tobacco, and 1,231,894 francs 

 for oils. The values of the principal exports were 

 6,581,304 francs for alfalfa, 5,830,732 francs for 

 tobacco, 3,527,016 francs for iron ore, 2,610,191 

 francs for hides, 2,060,828 francs for cork, 1,065,412 

 francs for cereals, and 906,755 francs for cattle. 



The number of vessels entered at Algerian ports 

 during 1898 was 1,834, of 1,101,608 tons; cleared, 

 1,798, of 1,117,408 tons. Of the vessels entered 

 472, of 279,722 tons, and of those cleared 364, of 



189,634 tons, were French. The number entered in 

 the coasting trade was 8,627, of 1,621,623 tons. 

 The merchant marine of Algiers on Jan. 1, 1899, 

 comprised 657 sail vessels, of 7,420 tons, and 64 

 steamers, of 10,958 tons. 



The railroads in operation in 1899 had a total 

 length of 2,146 miles, including 325 miles in Tunis. 

 The length of telegraph lines was 5,603 miles, with 

 12,915 miles of wire. The number of dispatches 

 sent during 1897 was 1,882,938, of which 1,671,217 

 were internal, 54,250 international, and 157,471 

 official. 



The southern part of each of the Algerian de- 

 partments is a military territory governed by mar- 

 tial law, comprising 556,143 square miles of the 

 officially occupied area of Algeria. This is the re- 

 gion constantly disturbed by the nomad Kabyles, 

 who are in chronic revolt and who occupy the 

 attention of the large military force that France 

 has had to maintain in Algeria chiefly on their 

 account. French statesmen and military authori- 

 ties have long recognized that these desert tribes 

 can only be brought into subjection by taking 

 possession of the oases from which they obtain 

 their supplies of food. The possession of these 

 oases is necessary also in order to establish com- 

 munications with the new dominions in the central 

 Soudan. Aside from military reasons, the fact 

 that Morocco lays claim to the principal oases has 

 hitherto deterred the French from occupying them, 

 although this has been the ambition of successive 

 governors general of Algeria, and an extension of 

 the French occupation has been achieved from time 

 to time, not without protests from the Sultan of 

 Morocco. The Saharan rifles and spahis were or- 

 ganized for the purpose of establishing French rule 

 in this region and gradually extending it over the 

 desert tribes until the way shall be clear for mili- 

 tary and commercial communications between Al- 

 geria and the French sphere on the upper Niger 

 and Lake Chad. Two columns of troops set out 

 late in 1899 to take possession of the oases south 

 of Oran, near the frontier of Morocco. The Al- 

 gerian troops occupied Insalah, the chief place in 

 the district of Tidikelt, on Dec. 28, 1899. This is 

 300 miles south of the military station of El Golca, 

 northeast of Gurara and Tuat, the other groups 

 of oases and desert villages that the French must 

 occupy before they can break the power of their 

 enemies in the Sahara. Although the sedentary 

 population of these oases is only 144,000, Arabs or 

 white Berbers possessing the power and property 

 and black Berbers and negro slaves doing the work, 

 which is to raise dates of many varieties by means 

 of subterranean irrigation conduits, these places 

 are the fountainhead of the opposition to the 

 French in the Sahara, not only on the part of the 

 rebellious Kabyles but of the Tuaregs, who con- 

 test French supremacy in the Soudan. The chief 

 center of anti-French intrigues has been Insalah, 

 but in all these oases the ruling races are bitterly 

 opposed to the French, although among the lower 

 orders there has grown up a feeling in favor of 

 French rule as preferable to the tyranny of Arabs 

 and the exactions of Tuaregs. *The Sultans of 

 Morocco have clung to their shadowy sovereignty 

 because the original seat of their family was in 

 the oasis of Tafilet, adjoining this region, ami when 

 the French first turned their attention to this coun- 

 try, about I860, the inhabitants of Tuai sent a 

 deputation to Morocco offering tribute and appeal- 

 ing to the Sultan to protect them against the in- 

 fidels. Their hostility to the French has become 

 intensified since the missionaries of the Sheikh el 

 Senoussi appeared among them, though the aris- 

 tocracy have material reasons for opposing French 

 civilization, controlling as they do not only the 



