The Maroquine Portion Of The Atlas
Contains Its Highest Peaks, Which Stretch From The East Of Tripoli To
The Atlantic Ocean, At Santa Cruz; And We Find No Mountains Of Equal
Height, Except In The Tenth Degree Of North Latitude, Or 18,000 Miles
South, Or 30,000 South, South-East.
The Rif coast has a mountainous
chain of some considerable height, but the Atlantic coast offers chiefly
ridges of hills.
The coasts of Morocco are not much indented, and
consequently have few ports, and these offer poor protection from the
ocean.
The general surface of Morocco presents a large ridge or lock, with two
immense declivities, one sloping N.W. to the ocean, with various rivers
and streams descending from this enormous back-bone of the Atlas, and
the other fulling towards the Sahara, S.E., feeding the streams and
affluents of Wad Draha, and other rivers, which are lost in the sands of
the Desert. This shape of the country prevents the formation of those
vast _Sebhahas_, or salt lakes, so frequent in Algeria and the south of
Tunis. We are acquainted only with two lakes of fresh or sweet
water - that of Debaia, traversed by Wad Draha, - and that of
Gibel-Akhder, which Leo compares to Lake Bolsena. The height of the
mountains, and the uniformity of their slopes, produce large and
numerous rivers; indeed, the most considerable of all North Africa.
These rivers of the North are shortest, but have the largest volume of
water; those of the South are larger, but are nearly dry the greater
part of the year. None of them are navigable far inland. Some abound
with fish, particularly the Shebbel, or Barbary salmon. It is neither so
rich nor so large as our salmon, and is whitefleshed; it tastes
something like herring, but is of a finer and more delicate flavour.
They are abundant in the market of Mogudor. The Shebbel, converted by
the Spaniards Sabalo, is found in the Guadalquivir.
The products of the soil are nearly the same as in other parts of
Barbary. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 28 of 103
Words from 14006 to 14519
of 53114
