DRY-LAND ARBORICULTURE IN ANCIENT AFRICA. 



9 



place to place in search of pasturage for their sheep and goats. Ex- 

 cept on the coast and at a few points near the mountains along the 

 northern and western borders of the district there are no large towns 

 and hardly any permanent villages. The desolation is almost every- 

 where complete. 



Yet during the third to the seventh century of the Christian era 

 this whole dis- 

 trict (fig. 1) , from 

 the seacoast west- 

 ward into what 

 is now eastern 

 Algeria, was 

 thickly d o 1 1 e d 

 w i t h thriving 

 villages and 

 farms. In an 

 area not exceed- 

 ing 20,000 square 

 miles — 15,000 

 within the bound- 

 aries of modern 

 Tunis and per- 

 il a p s 5,000 i n 

 Algeria — t here 

 were at least a 

 dozen cities of 

 10,000 to 30,000 

 inhabitants. A 

 network of splen- 

 did paved roads, 

 such as the Ro- 

 mans k n e w s o 

 well ho ay t o 



Fig. i. 



Map of Tunis/' showing the probable extent of the 

 dry-land arboricultural region in ancient times and the area 

 now occupied by dry-land olive orchards. (After Bourde.) 



build, connected 

 these cities with 



each other and with those of the seacoast. 



prosperity, that part of the region belonging to what we now 



While in the height of its 

 call 



a The northeastern portion of the lightly shaded area, at least near the 

 seacoast, is not typical of the dry-land arboricultural region, the yearly rainfall 

 at Snsa averaging 16.6 inches. In the southeastern portion (below Gabes) it 

 is unlikely that the dry-land orchards extended as far from the coast as is 

 indicated on the map. In the absence of exact data for correction, however, it 

 seems best to follow the limits of the region as traced by Bonrde (Rapport 

 snr les Cultures Fruitieres, etc., Tunis, 1899). 



26017— Bull. 125—08 2 



