238 
TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
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 
character as over all northern Africa ; but this 
quality, amid such copious irrigation, does not 
diminish its fruitfulness ; it serves merely, by 
loosening its texture, to make it easily worked. 
The soil is everywhere impregnated with saline 
particles. Few countries abound to such a de- 
gree with salt. Almost all the lakes, and many 
of the springs, are equal in this respect to the 
sea ; and in the territory 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 pro- 
cured by evaporation from the sea coast. 
The wild animals of Barbary are the lion, the 
panther, the wild boar, the hygena, called here the 
dubbah, and the antelope. The domestic animals 
do not materially differ from those of Europe. 
Barbary horses have been highly esteemed, but 
the practice prevalent among the chief men, of 
seizing the best of them by violence, has much 
discouraged the breed. The cows are bad ; the 
ass and mule are chiefly employed in labour. 
The noxious tribe of serpents abound in an ex- 
traordinary degree. The boa constrictor, that 
enormous species, before the view of which armies 
