THE

ENCYCLOPÆDIA

OF

GEOGRAPHY:

COMPRISING A

COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH,

PHYSICAL, STATISTICAL, CIVIL, AND POLITICAL;

EXHIBITING ITS RELATION TO THE HEAVENLY BODIES,

ITS PHYSICAL STRUCTURE,

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EACH COUNTRY,

AND THE INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS,
AND CIVIL AND SOCIAL STATE

OF

ALL NATIONS.

BY HUGH MURRAY, F.R.S.E.

ASSISTED IN

ASTRONOMY, &c. BY PROF. WALLACE, | BOTANY, &c. BY PROFESSOR HOOKER.
GEOLOGY, &c. BY PROF. JAMESON, ZOOLOGY, &c. BY W. SWAINSON, ESQ.

ILLUSTRATED BY EIGHTY-TWO MAPS,

AND ABOUT ELEVEN HUNDRED OTHER ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,
REPRESENTING THE MOST REMARKABLE OBJECTS OF NATURE AND ART

KG1909

าย

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

May 2

May 23, 1945)

Mrs. John Pratt Whitman

Entered according to the act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-six, by

CAREY, LEA, AND BLANCHARD,

In the clerk's office of the district court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN.....PHILADELPHIA.

PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN AND CO.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF GEOGRAPHY.

BOOK III.-PART III.—Continued.

CHAPTER V.
BARBARY.

BARBARY is that long line of territory, from 100 to 200 miles in depth, which extends westward from Egypt to the shores of the Atlantic. The name, though familiar with Europeans, and derived from the Berbers, a race of native inhabitants, does not appear to be recognised in the country itself; and the region is even occupied by different independent states; yet such is the similarity both as to nature and the condition and aspect of the inhabitants, that they may very advantageously be considered under one head.

SECT. I.-General Outline and Aspect.

The level plain, which composes the greater part of Barbary, resembles in surface and quality that immense ocean of sand which overspreads nearly the whole northern half of the African continent. Barbary, however, derives a distinctive and superior character from that mountain-chain, or series of chains, which, under the celebrated name of Atlas, ranges through nearly its whole extent from west to east. The loftiest pinnacles are in the west, rising above the plain of Morocco, and facing the Atlantic, where it appears even to rise above the limit of perpetual snow; but beyond the frontier of Morocco, and eastward through Algiers and Tunis, the mountains of this chain seldom exceed 3000 or 4000 feet. On the territory of Tripoli, they sink into lower eminences, and gradually subside to that flat sterile surface which characterises Northern Africa. The aspect of the Libyan desert, which separates Tripoli from Egypt, is compared by travellers to that of the bottom of the sea after its waves have receded. The breadth of the plain between the mountains and the Mediterranean, which constitutes Barbary, nowhere exceeds 100 miles, and in many places is not more than five or six; its average breadth may be estimated at about fifty or sixty miles. On the southern side of the mountains is another plain of vast and vague extent, stretching indefinitely to the south. This tract, which possesses naturally the same dry and desert character as the bordering regions, derives, from the streams poured down by the Atlas, a certain degree of fertility, which continues to the places where these are absorbed in the sands, or expanded into lakes. This region forms a loose appendage to Barbary, being inhabited by tribes in some sense tributary and dependent, though they are generally accustomed to rove with little control over their spacious plains.

The plain of Barbary is watered by numerous rivers descending from the great mountain range; but, on account of the short interval which interposes between it and the sea, they cannot have any long course. None of them can be considered as general features of the region; their character is local, and will be described under the local head. The same may be said of the less known streams poured from the southern declivity of Atlas, though these roll a somewhat longer course, till they are absorbed in the sandy waste.

The limits of this vast region, especially on the land side, where it passes by an insensible gradation into the trackless deserts, cannot be easily defined. It would be difficult even to fix the extreme points of Tripoli and Morocco. Port Bomba, on the eastern frontier of Tripoli, is in 23° 20′ E., while Mogadore, nearly the most western part of Morocco, is in 9° 20′ W., forming thus a line of 33° of longitude, or about 2000 miles from east to west. Of its northern boundary along the Mediterranean, the highest point is Cape Blanco in Tunis, in latitude 37°, whence it declines in Morocco to 35°, and in the Gulf of Sidra even to nearly 30°. The southern boundary is altogether of that vague and indefinite nature already described.

SECT. II.-Natural Geography.

SUBSECT. 1.-Geology,

Atlas, or northern region of Africa.-This interesting division of Africa is characterised by the Atlas range of mountains, some of the summits of which rise to a height of 13,000 feet above the sea. The central and higher chains are composed of granite, gneiss, mica slate, and clay slate; while resting upon and forming the lower ranges are extensive deposits