On The Plains, Or In The Open Country, The Great Cultivation Is
Wheat And Barley; In Suburban Districts, Vegetables And Fruits Are
Propagated.
In a commercial point of view, the North exports cattle,
grain, bark, leeches, and skins; and the South exports
Gums, almonds,
ostrich-feathers, wax, wool, and skins, as principle staple produce.
When the rains cease or fail, the cultivation is kept up by irrigation,
and an excellent variety of fruits and esculent vegetables are produced;
indeed, nearly all the vegetables and fruit-trees of Southern Europe are
here abundantly and successfully cultivated, besides those peculiar to
an African clime and soil. In the south, grows a tree peculiar to this
country, the Eloeondenron Argan, so called from its Arabic name Argan.
This tree produces fruit resembling the olive, whose egg-shaped, brown,
smooth and very hard stone, encloses a flat almond, of a white colour,
and of a very disagreeable taste, which, when crushed, produces a rancid
oil, used commonly as a substitute for olive-oil. The tree itself is
bushy and large, and sometimes grows of the size to a wide-spreading
oak. Not far from Mogador are several Argan forests. The level country
of the north is covered with forests of dwarfish oak; some bear sweet,
and others bitter acorns, and also the cork-tree, whose bark is a
considerable object of commerce. In the Atlas, has been found the
magnificent cedar of Lebanon. This tree has also been met with in
Algeria, but only on the mountains, some forty thousand feet above the
level of the sea.
In the South there is, of course, growing in all its Saharan vigour, the
noble date-palm, and by its side, squats the palmetto, or dwarf-palm (in
Arabic _dauma_). Of trees and plants, the usual tinzah, and snouber or
pine of Aleppo, are used for preparing the fine leathers of Morocco.
Many plants are also deleteriously employed for exciting intoxication,
or inflaming the passions.
Morocco has its mines of gold, silver, lead, iron, tin, sulphur,
mineral, salt, and antimony; but nearly all are neglected, or unworked.
Government will not encourage the industry of the people, for fear of
exciting the cupidity of foreigners. A Frenchman, a short time ago,
reported a silver mine in the south, and Government immediately bribed
him to make another statement that there was no such mine. At Elala and
Stouka, in the province of Sous, are several rich silver mines. Gold is
found in the Atlas and the Lower Sous. But this country is especially
rich in copper mines. A great number of ancient and modern authors speak
of these mines, which are situate in the mountainous country comprised
between Aghadir, Morocco, Talda, Tamkrout, and Akka. The mines most
worked, are those of Tedsi and Afran. At the foot of the Atlas, near
Taroudant, is a great quantity of sulphur. In the neighbourhood of
Morocco, saltpetre is found. In the province of Abda is an extensive
salt lake, and salt has been exported from this country to Timbuctoo. Of
precious stones, some fine specimens of amethyst have been discovered.
There are scarcely any animals peculiar to Morocco, or which are not
found in other parts of North Africa. Davidson mentions some curious
facts relative to the desert horse; "_sherb-errech_, wind-bibber, or
drinker of the wind," a variety of this animal, which is not to be met
with in the Saharan regions of Tunis, or Tripoli.
This horse is fed only on camel's milk, and is principally used for
hunting ostriches, which are run down by it, and then captured. [16] The
_sherb-errech_ will continue running three or four days together without
any food. It is a slight and spare-formed animal, mostly in wretched
condition, with ugly thick legs, and devoid of beauty as a horse.
CHAPTER IV.
Division of Morocco into kingdoms or States, and zones or regions. -
Description of the towns and cities on the Maroquine coasts of the
Mediterranean and Atlantic waters. - The Zafarine Isles. - Melilla. -
Alhucemas. - Penon de Velez. - Tegaza. - Provinces of Rif and Garet. -
Tetouan. - Ceuta. - Arzila. - El Araish. - Mehedia. - Salee. - Rabat. -
Fidallah. - Dar-el-Beidah. - Azamour. - Mazagran. - Saffee. - Waladia.
Morocco has been divided into States, or kingdoms by Europeans, although
such divisions scarcely exist in the administration of the native
princes. The ancient division mentioned by Leo was that of two large
provinces of Morocco and Fez, separated by the river Bouragrag, which
empties itself into the sea between Rabat and Salee; and, indeed, for
several centuries, these districts were separated and governed by
independent princes. Tafilett always, and Sous occasionally, were united
to Morocco, while Fez itself formed a powerful kingdom, extending itself
eastward as far as the gates of Tlemsen.
The modern division adopted by several authors, is -
Northern, or the kingdom of Fez. Central, or the kingdom of Morocco.
Eastern, or the Province of Tafilett. Southern, or the province of Sous.
Some add to this latter, the Province of Draha.
Then, a great number of districts are enumerated as comprehended in
these large and general divisions; but the true division of all
Mussulman States is into tribes. There is besides another, which more
approaches to European government, viz, into kaidats, or jurisdictions.
The name of a district is usually that of its chief tribe, and mountains
are denominated after the tribes that inhabit them. There is, of course,
a natural division, sometimes called a dividing into zones or specific
regions, which has already been alluded to in enumerating the natural
resources of Morocco, and which besides corresponds with the present
political divisions.
I. The North of the Atlas: coming first, the Rif, or mountainous region,
which borders the Mediterranean from the river Moulwia to Tangier,
comprising the districts of Hashbat west, and Gharet and Aklaia east.
Then the intermediate zone of plains and hills, which extends from the
middle course of the Moulwia to Tangier on one coast, and to Mogador on
the other.
II. The Central Region, or the great chain of the Atlas.
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