202 AFRICA 



below, with undergrowth of myrtles, tree-heaths, straw- 

 berry trees and other shrubs, while ilex forests are more 

 abundant farther up. Most of the original covering has 

 long been destroyed, as in the plain, and the slopes are 

 clad with dense scrub, when they are not entirely bare. 



At about 1,600 feet, mountain vegetation, represented 

 by the cedar of the Atlas, mingles with the holm-oak, 

 above this the cedar forms the forest, mixed here and there 

 with deciduous trees up to the tree limit at 5,500 feet. 

 Loose brushes of lavender and other small bushes are 

 scattered over the stony tops. The upper girdles have 

 been somewhat better preserved, perhaps on account of 

 their steeper slopes. 



The variety of cultivation which is possible in this 

 part of Africa offered great scope to the settled tribes of 

 Kabyles and Berbers. Unfortunately pastoral and more 

 warlike tribes conquered the land, and have held it now 

 for centuries and kept it back. Strife between agri- 

 culturist and nomad is still rampant in the western 

 or Moroccan region, and is a serious obstacle to its 

 prosperity. The easternmost outlier of typical Mediter- 

 ranean evergreen vegetation is found in Cyrenaica or 

 Barka, but in a much poorer form. Mauretania, with 

 its desirable climate and the rich rewards it offers to 

 human industry, has at all times attracted invasions 

 from the east. Its historical ground is bestrewn with 

 the ruins of the Mediterranean civilizations, Greek, 

 Phoenician, Roman, Arab, which it successively shared. 



The Atlas Interment Plateaus. Behind the great 

 barrier of the Northern Atlas is an elevated region of 

 vast arid plateaus, arranged in parallel terraces and 

 dotted with innumerable salt lakes or ' shotts '. Those 

 plateaus reappear south of the Saharan Atlas, running 

 as a sort of shelf along the foot of the inland slopes of 



