MMI Otit ey OL hE higk “PROMISE, 
atmospheric conditions. It never rains 
in that land. A local tradition says that 
the bad behavior of the women of the 
country prevents the clouds from giving 
rain. I should not like to give an auda- 
cious judgment on the virtue of these 
ladies, but I must mention that often 
five, seven, and ten years pass without 
rain.” 
Apart from the scarcity of rain, we 
find in the invading sand dunes another 
great enemy of agriculture. A great 
space of the Jetara plain is covered with 
them, and in their migration they threaten 
to invade the cultivated patches. Quite 
near to the palm gardens around the city 
of Tripoli one can see dunes rising to a 
height of about 70 feet. 
HER FORMER PROSPERITY GREATLY 
EXAGGERATED 
The only scientific investigation of the 
resources of the soil we owe to a com- 
mission sent out to Cyrenaica by the 
Jewish Territorial Organization to ex- 
amine the territory proposed for the pur- 
pose of a Jewish settlement. Prof. J. W. 
Gregory, the head of that expedition, 
came to the conclusion that the general 
reports of the former wealth, dense 
population, and exceptional fertility of 
Cyrenaica have been exaggerated. AlI- 
though the soil is excellent, it is patchy, 
and the country is better suited for pas- 
toral than for agricultural occupation. 
Owing to the scarcity of water, the coun- 
try could never have supported, and 
never will support, a dense population. 
Storage of water presents difficulties, 
owing to the porosity of the soil. 
What Professor Gregory says about 
Cyrenaica may be true, with some modi- 
fications, also, for Tripoli, which never 
was examined scientifically from that 
point of view. If it may be permitted to 
utter a personal opinion here, one would 
say that the lot of the inhabitants could 
be improved by bettering the means of 
communication, and thus enable them to 
sell more easily the products of their 
land; by construction of artesian wells 
and of irrigation works, and by encour- 
aging the home industries by foundation 
1045 
of technical schools, as already started 
by the Turkish government. But such 
measures would require comparatively 
large capital. It is more than doubtful 
if the land can become the home of a 
great number of European settlers. 
The somewhat sanguine prospects of 
mineral treasures in the soil are based 
on no solid grounds. Professor Gregory 
is absolutely pessimistic about Cyrenaica ; 
the few investigations made in Triopli 
by some geologists are not encouraging. 
Mr. Pervinquiére, on his journey to 
Ghadames, found that the deposits of 
Zar, which some one had described as 
nitrates, were merely gypsum. Equally 
unsatisfactory was the examination of 
samples of phosphates found in the 
Jebel. 
Some 50 years ago Tripoli deserved, 
with a certain right, the grandiose names 
of “the Key to Central Africa,” or “the 
Queen of the Sahara.” Today these 
glories are of the past. Once ‘Tripoli 
was the great emporium of the trans- 
Saharan trade. Not far from Europe, 
and by its situation in the Syrt nearer to 
the heart of Africa, it was the gateway 
of the trade with Central Africa. Large 
caravans arrived laden with the goods of 
the Sudan and the Niger countries. 
These goods were ostrich feathers, ivory, 
skins, minerals, and slaves. ‘The slave 
traffic was the most remunerative article 
of that trade. In exchange the caravans 
took south the productions of the Euro- 
pean market. Murzuk and Ghadames 
were then the important intermediary 
stations, and the trade brought wealth 
and life to these remote towns. 
The decline of the trans-Saharan trade 
began when the representatives of the 
European powers protested against slave 
trade. After these remonstrances the 
Turks began to stop the slave traffic. 
Nowadays the slave traffic on the routes 
between Tripoli and the south can be re- 
garded as extinct. It is said that there 
is still some slave traffic going on on the 
Benghazi-Wadai route, but such asser- 
tions are difficult to prove, as this traffic 
is carried on secretly. 
Another cause of decline was this: 
