bordering ranges are the Aures mountains, attaining, in Mount Sheliah, a height of over seven thousand feet.

4. The region lying between the northern bordering ranges in Algeria and Tunis is called the Tell country. This is the most fertile and valuable portion of these two states, and here are situated the most important towns. The rivers of these states are but small. They flow either into the Mediterranean or into the salt lakes on the border of the desert, according as they rise on the north or south sides of the great central range and the high plateau. They are swollen and rapid in winter, but in summer are but tiny streams.

5. The table-lands are bare, dotted over with brackish lakes or marshes, and the only water available for the flocks and herds is what is left in the stagnant pools remaining in the hollows of the rocks after the winter's rains.

6. The southern divisions of the Barbary States are parts of the Great Sahara desert, and embrace an area larger than the mountainous and coast regions combined. In the east there are depressed marshes and quicksands, extending inland from the Gulf of Cabes for a distance of 240 miles. The largest of these is called Shott Keber. The farthest inland is Shott Melghir. The surface of this. depression is nearly fifty feet below the level of the Mediterranean. A rocky barrier only ten miles wide separates the chain of depression from the Mediterranean Sea, and, if the scheme for cutting a canal, which has lately been under the consideration of the French Govern ment, was carried out, enormous lakes would be formed, which would, in all probability, materially assist in fertilising the waste lands which lie around.

7. The western part of Belud-el-Jerid is not entirely barren. It consists of sterile tracts of country covered with sand; plains which in spring are covered with herbs, and on which the shepherds pasture their flocks; and oases, or fertile spots round wells and springs.

8. The climate of the north of Africa, though warm, is healthy, particularly in Morocco. That of Algiers and Tunis is uniform, and much resembles the climate of

Spain and Italy. In the uplands of the Tell the climate resembles that of Central Europe. There are four seasons, merging almost imperceptibly into each other. In the summer little or no rain falls, and the country is parched; but the autumn and winter rains clothe the land with the richest vegetation. The swampy districts near the coast, and the low-lying oases in the Sahara, are very unhealthy for Europeans, the summer heat in the latter being most oppressive.

9. The natural productions of the Barbary States are numerous and varied. The olive, orange, citron, almond, and fig, are among the chief trees. Of the beasts of prey the lion and panther are common, and the jackal and hyena are found everywhere; the antelope and gazelle are plentiful, and side by side with these are the more serviceable domestic animals-the horse, mule, camel, dromedary, ox, sheep, and goat. Birds are also exceedingly plentiful. The mineral kingdom yields iron, lead, and copper, but neither coal nor the precious metals.

10. From the earliest times, and up to the eleventh century, the Berbers, an African people, inhabited all the north of Africa from Egypt westward to the Atlantic. The descendants of these aborigines still inhabit the larger part of this area. In the eleventh century great immigrations of Arabs set in, and the Berbers were driven southwards to the mountain districts, and to the Sahara beyond, and the Berbers in their turn pressed back the Negroes towards the more central parts of the continent. Since then the Turks, Jews, and a sprinkling of other nationalities, have established a footing in the country.

11. The population of the Barbary States now numbers about ten millions, comprising Berbers (or Kabyles, as they are called in Algiers), Arabs (including Moors and Bedouins), Turks, Jews, and Negroes, with some mixtures of these. The Moors comprise the majority of the townsmen; the Bedouins are the wandering Arabs, they live in the wilder parts of the country, owning no man their master; the Berbers, though leading a more sedentary life, are allowed to do pretty much as they choose,

so long as their native chiefs see to their proper tribute being paid over to the central authorities. The Turks arrived in the sixteenth century, and their tongue is still the one used in the Governments of Tunis and Tripoli; though in Morocco all classes speak Arabic, the Berbers using a peculiar tongue of their own. The Negroes are mostly domestic slaves brought from the Soudan. The Jews are mainly of Portuguese origin; they are scattered all over the country, wherever their pre-eminent abilities as financiers and traders are likely to be of advantage to themselves.

MOROCCO, ALGIERS, TUNIS, TRIPOLI.

1. The limits of Morocco, the "far west" of the Arabs, are not clearly defined, but its area is about a quarter of a million of square miles, and its population probably a little over six millions. The country consists of two slopes--north-westward to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and south-eastward to the Desert. In the former rain falls for five months in the year, and the soil is fertile and the country comparatively thickly populated. In the latter there is only one month of rain, and here the date-palm forms almost the sole support of the inhabitants, who cluster in the oases. Between these slopes there is a broken mountainous region, peopled by a poor yet bold race of mountaineers.

2. Morocco includes the three ancient kingdoms of Morocco, Fez, and Talifet-the mother country of the Sultans. The country is subdivided into twenty-eight provinces, each under a governor appointed by the Sultan. The government, as far as it goes, is absolute and despotic, but a large proportion of the mountain districts and the country beyond is virtually independent of the authority of the Sultan, and in the hands of the Berber

chiefs. Laws, civil or military, except custom and tradition, there are none. The Sultan, or his lieutenant, is the sole authority.

3. The three imperial cities of Morocco, at which the Sultan alternately resides, are Morocco, Fez, and Mequinez. Morocco is built on the river Tensift, near the base of the Atlas Mountains. It is surrounded by immense gardens and orchards, and is defended by a ruined wall and turrets. Some of the main streets are

The

handsome, but the majority are narrow and filthy. pride of the city is its great mosque. The population is about 50,000. Fez is a larger town than Morocco. It is situated farther north, on a tributary of the Seboo. The slopes of the hills by which it is surrounded are covered with ruined buildings of every sort, and the summits of two are crowned by the ruins of ancient fortresses. Mequinez lies forty miles south-west from Fez. There are a few unimportant sea-port towns, and of these the chief is Tangiers, on the north-west coast.

4. With the exception of leather, which is made in all parts of the Empire, and the red Oriental caps, known as Fez," from the town in which they are made, there is no native industry properly so called in Morocco. Fez is the great emporium of the inland trade, and Tangiers is the chief seat of the foreign trade with Great Britain, France, and Spain. The chief exports to Great Britain are almonds, wool, gum, and ostrich feathers.

5. Algeria is a colony of France, and in size is but little inferior to the mother-country. Its population is small, numbering only about two-and-a-half millions-of whom about a quarter of a million are Europeans, chiefly French, Spaniards, and Italians, and the rest Arabs, Kabyles, and Jews. The zone bordering the Mediterranean, known as the Tell, is the cultivated region. Here, in a series of basins, are grown great crops of wheat, barley, and other grains, and on the mountain slopes separating the basins are forests of cork oak, common oak, cedar, and pine. In the upland regions esparto and halfa grasses are cultivated for the paper-makers, and these form the chief articles of export to Great Britain,