THE BERBERS. 113 



oasis to oasis. It is true that in the Carthaginian 

 clays the elephant abounded in the forests of the Atlas ; 

 and it could not have come across from Central Africa, 

 for the Sahara before it was a desert, was a sea. It 

 is probable that the elephant of Barbary belonged to 

 the same species as the small elephant of Europe, the 

 bones of which have been discovered in Malta and 

 certain caves of Spain ; and that it outlived the 

 European kind on account of its isolated position in 

 the Atlas, which was thinly inhabited by savage 

 tribes. But it did not long withstand the power of 

 the Romans. Pliny mentions that in his time the 

 forests of Morocco were being ransacked for ivory, 

 and Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century observes, 

 that " there are no longer any elephants in Maur- 

 itania." 



In Morocco the Phoenicians were settled only on 

 the coast. The Regency of Tunis and part of Algeria 

 is the scene on which the tragedy of Carthage was 

 performed. 



In that part of Africa the habitable country must 

 be divided into three regions ; first, a corn region, 

 lying between the Atlas and the sea, exceedingly 

 fertile, but narrow in extent ; secondly, the Atlas itself, 

 with its timber stores and elephant preserves ; and 

 thirdly, a plateau region, of poor sandy soil, affording a 

 meagre pasture ; interspersed with orchards of date 

 trees ; abounding in ostriches, lions, and gazelles, and 

 gradually fading away into the desert. 



Africa belonged to a race of men whom we shall call 

 Berbers or Moors, but who were known to the ancients 

 under many names, and who still exist as the Kabyles 

 of Algeria, the Shilluhs of the Atlas, and the Tuaricks 

 or tawny Moors of the Sahara. Their habits depended 



