Manchester Memoirs ; Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 6- 7 



the soil is wonderfully rich, and wells can be sunk, though 

 at considerable depths; the hillsides are bare, the soil 

 having tumbled to the bottom of the deep steep valleys. 

 The white skeletons of the old system of tenancy still 

 visible on the bare mountain sides, and the roots of trees 

 still peering from the rocky fissures attest the fact that the 

 hill country of Palestine was once cultivated in a satis- 

 factory manner. Walls of rough stone were built round 

 the hill-sides, three to four feet high, according to the 

 steepness of the slope, and the space between them and 

 the hill filled in with fat loam, then another wall, and 

 another, from bottom to top until the mountain side pre- 

 sented the appearance from the opposite hills of a series 

 of steps." 13 



The Berbers of North Africa practise terraced irri- 

 gation, and along the Saharan slopes of the Atlas 

 piedmont run a series of wadis and artesian wells. 14 

 Irrigation is found in the Saharan oases : for example, that 

 of L'Oeud-Rir in Algeria is formed of irrigated gardens 

 separated by stone walls. 15 



The irrigation systems of Egypt and Mesopotamia are 

 well known. The lives of the vast majority of Egyptian 

 peasants have for thousands of years been chiefly occupied 

 with the irrigation of the soil and the problems of the 

 water-supply. The method of procedure which is charac- 

 teristic of Egyptian irrigation is to divide the land up 

 into compartments, and to allow the water to flow from 

 one sector to the other. 



Terraced cultivation is present in Darfur of the Egyp- 

 tian Sudan. Only the mountainous districts are well 



13 Sir C. Warren, Scottish Geographical Magazine, in Herbertson's 

 Descriptive Geography of Asia, London, 1913. 



14 Semple, p. 501. 



15 Dr. H. Weisberger, "Notes sur L'Oeud-Rir et ses habitants," Revue 

 d'ethnographie, IV., 1885. 



