TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
233 
dance as to be called the " sea under ground." The 
inhabitants consist of various tribes of Arabs, who 
are but half tributary to the neighbouring govern- 
ments of Algiers and Tunis. The cultivated land 
of Barbary, called commonly the Tell, does not 
usually extend more than a hundred miles inward 
from the sea. It is most exceedingly fertile, being 
well watered by the numerous streams descending 
from the Atlas. The soil is of the same sandy cha- 
racter, as over all northern Africa ; but this quali- 
ty, amid such copious irrigation, does not diminish 
its fruitfulness ; it serves merely, by loosening its 
texture, to make it easily worked. The soil is every* 
where impregnated with saline particles. Few 
countries abound to such a degree with salt. Al- 
most all the lakes, and many of the springs, are 
equal in this respect to the sea ; and in the terri- 
tory of Tunis, there is not a single spring of fresh 
water. The salt found in the interior of Morocco, 
though abundant, is red, and of a coarser quality 
than that which is procured by evaporation from 
the sea coast. 
The wild animals of Barbary are the lion, the 
panther, the wild boar, the hyaena, called here the 
dubbah, and the antelope. The domestic animals 
do not materially differ from those of Europe. Bar- 
bary horses have been highly esteemed, but the 
practice prevalent among the chief men, of seizing 
the best of them by violence, has much discouraged 
