It Goes On Diminishing Afterwards In Height
As It Extends Towards The East, So That It Appears The Summits Of The
Territory Of Algiers Are Higher Than Those On The Territory Of Tunis,
And The Latter Are Less High Than Those To Be Found In The State Of
Tripoli.
Several secondary ridges diverge in different directions from
the principal chain; we shall name among them the one which ends at the
Strait of Gibraltar in the Empire of Morocco.
Several intermediary
mountains seem to connect with one another the secondary chains which
intersect the territories of Algiers and Tunis. Geographers call Little
Atlas the secondary mountains of the land of Sous, in opposition to the
name of Great Atlas, they give to the high mountains of the Empire of
Morocco. In that part of the principal chain called Mount Gharian, in
the south of Tripoli, several low branches branch off and under the
names of Mounts Maray, Black Mount Haroudje, Mount Liberty, Mount
Tiggerandoumma and others less known, furrow the great solitudes of the
Desert of Lybia and Sahara Proper. From observations made on the spot by
Mr. Bruguiere in the former state of Algiers, the great chain which
several geographers traced beyond the Little Atlas under the name of
Great Atlas does not exist. The inhabitants of Mediah who were
questioned on the subject by this traveller, told him positively, that
the way from that town to the Sahara was through a ground more or less
elevated, and slopes more or less steep, and without having any chain of
mountains to cross. The Pass of Teniah which leads from Algiers to
Mediah is, therefore, included in the principal chain of that part of
the Regency.
[16] Xenophon, in his Anabasis, speaks of ostriches in Mesopotamia being
run down by fleet horses.
[17] Mount Atlas was called Dyris by the ancient aborigines, or Derem,
its name amongst the modern aborigines. This word has been compared to
the Hebrew, signifying the place or aspect of the sun at noon-day, as if
Mount Atlas was the back of the world, or the cultivated parts of the
globe, and over which the sun was seen at full noon, in all his fierce
and glorious splendour. Bochart connects the term with the Hebrew
meaning 'great' or 'mighty,' which epithet would be naturally applied to
the Atlas, and all mountains, by either a savage or civilized people. We
have, also, on the northern coast, Russadirum, the name given by the
Moors to Cape Bon, which is evidently a compound of _Ras_, head, and
_dirum_, mountain, or the head of the mountain.
We have again the root of this word in Doa-el-Hamman, Tibet Deera, &c.,
the names of separate chains of the mighty Atlas. Any way, the modern
Der-en is seen to be the same with the ancient Dir-is.
[18] The only way of obtaining any information at all, is through the
registers of taxation; and, to the despotism and exactions of these and
most governments, we owe a knowledge of the proximate amount of the
numbers of mankind.
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