J 1 2 THE ATLAS. 



their revenues as a free-will offering. During the 

 great Persian wars, when on all sides empires and 

 kingdoms were falling to the ground, the Phoenicians 

 refused to lend their fleet to the Great King to make 

 war upon Carthage. When Tyre was hesieged by 

 Alexander, the nobles sent their wives and children 

 to Carthage, where they were tenderly received. 



The Africa of the ancients, the modern Barbary, 

 lies between the Sahara and the Mediterranean 

 Sea. It is protected from the ever-encroaching 

 waves of the sandy ocean by the Atlas range. In its 

 western parts this mountain wall is high and broad, and 

 covered with eternal snow. It becomes lower as it 

 runs towards the west, also drawing nearer to the sea, 

 and dwindles and dwindles, till finally it disappears, 

 leaving a wide, unprotected region between Barbary 

 and Egypt. Over this the Sahara flows, forming a 

 desert barrier tract to all intents and purposes itself 

 a sea, dividing the two lands from each other as com- 

 pletely as the Mediterranean divides Italy and Greece. 

 This land of North Africa is in reality a part of Spain ; 

 the Atlas is the southern boundary of Europe ; gray 

 cork trees clothe the lower sides of those magnificent 

 mountains ; their summits are covered with pines, 

 among which the cross-bill flutters, and in which the 

 European bear may still be found. The flora of the 

 range, as Dr Hooker has lately shown, is of a Spanish 

 type ; the Straits of Gibraltar is merely an accident ; 

 there is nothing in Morocco to distinguish it from 

 Andalusia. The African animals which are there 

 found, are desert-haunting species, — the antelope and 

 gazelle, the lion, the jackal, and the hyaena, and cer- 

 tain species of the monkey tribe ; and these might 

 have easily found their way across the Sahara from 



