PREP Om VAAN D- OF UilliUE PROMISE 
whose seat is Tripoli town. Cyrenaica 
was a subprovince with an administra- 
tion directly responsible to Constanti- 
nople. 
Let us briefly summarize the geo- 
graphical features of the country. 
Tripolitania occupies the land along 
the Mediterranean Sea from the Tunis- 
ian frontier to the Gulf of Sidra. 
the coast southward, with an average 
width of 40 miles, runs a plain called 
Jefara. At its .outhern border rises with 
a steep ascent a chain of mountains com- 
monly called the Jebel, of which the 
most famous part is Jebel Gharian. 
These mountains form a sort of table- 
land, which slopes slightly southward till 
it reaches the Hamada-el-Homra, a flat, 
rocky plateau of about 40,000 square 
miles, covered with little red stones, ab- 
solutely dry and arid. In the south of 
the Hamada is the land of Fezzan, a col- 
lection of oases in a country of dunes 
and desert. Fezzan forms a wedge of 
sparsely inhabited land into the great 
Sahara. 
THE HARBORS ARE POOR 
Cyrenaica is a projection into the 
Mediterranean between the gulfs of 
Sidra and Solum. A section through its 
center from north to south shows a 
small plain along the coast; then a steep 
ascent, which leads to a plateau. This is 
bounded southward by a second ascent. 
Behind this a great plain opens, running 
southward to the Libyan Desert. 
It may be added that the frontiers of 
Tripoli have never been definitely de- 
fined, except the part from the seashore 
to Ghadames, which was settled in 1910 
by a Turco-French boundary commis- 
sion. The undefined frontiers of Fezzan 
gave rise to many a dispute between the 
French and the Turks, especially since 
the Turkish officials of Fezzan developed, 
in the last few years, a certain activity. 
The coast of Tripoli, which extends 
over a length of 1,100 miles, offers but 
few natural harbors. The harbor of 
Tripoli itself is dangerous, because of 
the many rocks which lie at the entrance, 
and it was no rare occurrence that in 
From 
rough weather the steamer could not 
approach the port. But the harbor is 
capable of improvement. The ports of 
Benghazi and Derna are in the same 
condition. 
It is only on the eastern coast of Cy- 
renaica, which is sometimes called the 
Marmarica, that we find two harbors of 
the very best quality: Bomba and To- 
bruk; but, as both have no hinterland,. 
their value is more strategical than com- 
mercial. Tobruk, especially, is highly 
praised by all visitors, and the German 
explorer Schweinfurth places it, as re- 
gards security, on the same level as the 
famous French port of Bizerta, in Tunis. 
Tobruk is less than a hundred miles dis- 
tant from the Egyptian frontier, and it 
is not unlikely that it will play in the 
future an important role in Mediter- 
ranean politics. 
THE INHABITANTS 
What is the population now inhabiting 
Tripolitania, that immense area of 400,- 
000 square miles? No exact census ex- 
ists, but all competent observers agree 
that it hardly exceeds 800,000. That 
means about two inhabitants to the 
square mile. The sessile or settled popu- 
lation inhabits an area of about 19,000 
square miles; that means, roughly, the 
twenty-first part of the whole land. 
A recent writer, Mr. Ewald Banse, 
estimates the number of the inhabitants 
of Tripoli proper (the Jefara plain and 
the Jebel region) as 350,000, of Fezzan 
as 40,000, and of Cyrenaica as 150,000. 
The population of the city of Tripoli 
consists of about 50,000 inhabitants. Of 
these, 10,000 are Jews, 35,000 Berbers 
and Arabs, and the rest consists of Mal- 
tese, Levantines, Italians, and other 
Europeans. The number of genuine 
Italians, excluding the Levantine and 
Jewish protégés of the Italian consulate, 
hardly exceeds 200. 
The Italians and Maltese are petty 
traders, artisans, and fishermen. The 
Jews are traders and artisans and espe- 
cially smiths, as in Mohammedan coun- 
tries smithing is regarded as an ignoble 
profession, A fair number of Jews live 
