We may return to Syracuse by the Old Euryelus Road. On the S. side of the plateau it joins the Floridia road, 1¼ M. from the station.
VI. ALGERIA.
| Route | Page | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographical and Historical Sketch. Preliminary Information | [168] | |
| 28. | Oran | [175] |
| a. The Harbour and the Old Town, 178.—b. The New Town, 180.—c. Environs (Fort Santa Cruz, Belvédère, Mers el-Kébir, Promenade des Falaises), 182.—From Oran to Hammam Bou-Hadjar, 184. | ||
| 29. | From Oran to Tlemcen | [185] |
| From Oran to Aïn-Temouchent. From Aïn-Temouchent to Tlemcen viâ Pont-de-l’Isser or Beni-Saf, 185. | ||
| 30. | Tlemcen | [187] |
| Mansura, 193.—Sidi Bou-Médine, 194.—Agâdir, 196. | ||
| 31. | From Tlemcen to Nemours viâ Lalla-Marnia | [197] |
| Oudjda, 197. | ||
| 32. | From Oran to Beni-Ounif de Figuig (Colomb-Béchar) viâ Damesme and Perrégaux | [199] |
| From Damesme to Arzew, 199.—From Tizi to Mascara, 200.—From Aïn-Sefra to Tiout, 202. | ||
| 33. | From Oran to Algiers | [206] |
| Kalàa. From Relizane to Mostaganem; to Tiaret, 207.—Mazouna, 208.—From Orléansville to Ténès, 209.—From Affreville to the Cedar Forest of Teniet el-Haâd, 210.—From Miliana to Margueritte. From Bou-Medfa to Hammam Rhira, 212.—From Blida to Berrouaghia. From Boghari to Ghardaïa viâ Djelfa and Laghouat, 215. | ||
| 34. | Algiers | [217] |
| a. Lower Quarter of the Old Town (Harbour, Mosquée de la Pêcherie, Great Mosque, Jardin Marengo, Archevêché, Cathedral, National Library), 222.—b. The Kasba, 226.—c. Mustapha-Supérieur and Environs (Museum, Chemin du Télemly, Birmandreis), 228.—d. The S.E. Suburbs (Jardin d’Essai, Hussein-Dey, Kouba), 232.—e. El-Biar and Bouzaréah (Forêt de Baïnem), 233.—f. Notre-Dame d’Afrique and St. Eugène, 235. | ||
| 35. | From Algiers to Tipaza and Cherchell | [236] |
| a. Viâ Castiglione | [236] | |
| Jebel Chenoua, 242. | ||
| b. Viâ El-Affroun and Marengo | [243] | |
| 36. | From Algiers to Cape Matifou and to Aïn-Taya viâ Maison-Carrée | [247] |
| L’Arba, 247.—Rovigo, 248. | ||
| 37. | From Algiers to Bougie viâ Beni-Mansour | [249] |
| Aumale, 250.—Thubusuctu, 252. | ||
| 38. | From Algiers to Tizi-Ouzou. From Camp-du-Maréchal to Tigzirt | [252] |
| Port-aux-Poules. From Mirabeau to Boghni, 253.—From Mirabeau to Dra el-Mizan, 254.—Taksept, 256. | ||
| 39. | From Tizi-Ouzou viâ Fort-National to Maillot or Tazmalt | [256] |
| From Fort-National through the Djemâa Valley to Michelet; to Boghni, 257.—The Jurjura Mts. Icherridène, 258.—The Lalla Khedidja, 259. | ||
| 40. | From Fort-National viâ Azazga to Bougie | [260] |
| Toudja, 262. | ||
| 41. | Bougie | [262] |
| Cape Carbon, 264.—Anse des Aiguades. Jebel Gouraya, 265. | ||
| 42. | From Bougie through the Chabet el-Akra to Sétif | [265] |
| From Souk et-Tenine to Djidjelli. Mila, 267.—From Kerrata viâ Aïn-Abessa to Sétif, 268.—Périgotville, 269. | ||
| 43. | From Algiers to Constantine viâ Beni-Mansour, Sétif, and El-Guerrah | [269] |
| From Bordj-Bou-Arréridj to Bou-Saâda, 270.—Djemila. From Ouled-Rahmoun to Aïn-Beïda and Khenchela, 272.—Aïn-el-Hammam, 273. | ||
| 44. | From Constantine to Biskra viâ El-Guerrah and Batna | [274] |
| The Medracen, 274.—Zana. Jebel Touggour, 275.—Jebel Metlili. Gorges de Tilatou, 277.—The Aurès Mts., 278.—Environs of Biskra, 281.—From Biskra to Sidi-Okba, 283.—From Biskra to M’chounech; to Touggourt, 284.—The Oued Rhir. From Touggourt to Nefta viâ El-Oued. The Souf, 285. | ||
| 45. | From Batna viâ Lambèse to Timgad | [286] |
| Ichoukkân, 296. | ||
| 46. | Constantine | [297] |
| 47. | From Constantine to Philippeville | [303] |
| From St. Charles to Bona, 303. | ||
| 48. | From Constantine to Bona viâ Duvivier | [306] |
| Announa (Thibilis), 307.—Bugeaud, 311. | ||
| 49. | From Constantine or Bona viâ Duvivier to Souk-Ahras (Tebessa, Tunis) | [312] |
| From Souk-Ahras to Khamissa, 313. | ||
| 50. | From Souk-Ahras to Tebessa | [313] |
| Madaura. Vasampus, 314. | ||
Algeria, the central part of Barbary (Arab. Jezirat el-Maghreb) and since 1830 a French colony, covers an area of about 77,500 sq. M., or, including the S. territories (p. [170]), about 342,500 sq. M., and contains 5,232,000 inhab. (4½ million Mohammedans and 730,000 Europeans, mostly of French, Spanish, and Italian origin). It extends from Oued Kiss, which was substituted for the Mulûya (p. [93]) by the Morocco treaty of 1845, to Cape Roux (p. [131]), the boundary of Tunisia, and from the Mediterranean to the Highlands of Ahaggar in the interior of the Sahara. The arbitrary division of N. Algeria into the three départements of Oran, Alger, and Constantine is a survival of the Turkish administration. The orographical regions, sharply defined except towards the E., are the Tell Atlas (p. xxx), the E. prolongation of the Rîf Mts. (p. [93]), the Great Steppe, and the Sahara Atlas.
The Tell Atlas (Atlas Tellien), the most important part of this vast territory, consists of two parallel ranges of folded hills of recent origin, which intersect a great basin stretching from the Atlantic to the bay of Tunis. The highest points of the range next the coast are the Traras (3727 ft.), the Dahra (5181 ft.), the Atlas of Blida (5345 ft.), the Jurjura Chain (7572 ft.) in Great Kabylia, and the Babor Range (6575 ft.) in Little Kabylia. In the interior rise the Tlemcen Group (6047 ft.), the Ouarsenis (6512 ft.), the Jebel Dira (5938 ft.), and the Hodna Mts. (6112 ft.), which last form the only considerable link between the Tell and the Sahara Atlas. The Littoral, 842 M. in length, with long, precipitous, and almost inaccessible stretches, has ever been dreaded on account of its storms; it is broken by the bays of Oran, Arzew, Algiers, Bougie, Philippeville, and Bona, but does not possess a single good natural harbour. Flanking the coast, in front of the Tell Atlas, are several ranges of lower hills (Sahel), as the Sahel of Oran, between Lourmel and the mouth of the Chélif, the Sahel of Algiers, and the Sahel of Collo, while the Edough Group (3307 ft.), composed of crystalline rock, forms an independent mountain. The extensive plains behind the Sahels, which at Oran are marshy (Marais de la Macta) and have besides the remains of great salt lagoons (Sebkha d’Oran and Salines d’Arzew), and especially the Mitidja near Algiers, once a bay of the sea, and the Plaine de Bône, are the most fertile and richly cultivated parts of Algeria.
The Hauts-Plateaux or Great Steppe, an almost unwatered region, was originally a deep depression between the Tell and the Sahara Atlas, which in the course of thousands of years was gradually filled up with the alluvial deposits of mountain-torrents, and thus converted into a great and monotonous undulating plain, 2300–3300 ft. above the sea-level. The saline and gipseous soil is very sterile and is only at a few places adapted for the culture of grain, but has proved suitable for sheep-grazing. In the depressions of the steppe lie a number of extensive shotts or salt-lakes, which in summer are dry and recognizable only by their dazzling snow-white incrustation. Among these are the Chott Gharbi (Rharbi) and the Chott ech-Chergui in Oran, the Zahrès Gharbi and Zahrès Chergui in Algiers, and the Chott el-Hodna at Constantine.
The Sahara Atlas (Atlas Saharien) forms the great barrier between Algeria and the desert. It is ‘a region of grand and wildly fissured gorges, partly caused by erosion in the pluvial period, of valleys worn by torrents, of lofty plains converted into mountains, and of marine basins now filled up’ (Theob. Fischer). The chief heights are the Montagnes des Ksour (7004 ft.), a prolongation of the much higher Morocco Atlas (p. [93]), Jebel Amour (6467 ft.), the Monts des Ouled-Naïl (5295 ft.), and, beyond the depression of the Monts du Zab (4304 ft.), the Aurès Mts. (7634 ft.), which are wooded in their N. half, and next to Great Kabylia have the finest hill-scenery in Algeria.
The Sahara, which belongs to the Territoires du Sud or de Commandement, governed by the military ‘Bureaux Arabes’, consists of the Bassin du Gourara or Bassin de l’Oued Saoura on the W., a plateau 330–2600 ft. above the sea, and of the Bassin du Melrir, named after the Chott Melrir, on the E., lying partly below the sea-level. Within this desert region, which is divided by the limestone plateau of the Mzab, are distinguished the Hammadas, or lofty plateaux, with rocky or hard clay-soil, entirely waterless and sterile, and the Areg (sing. Erg), the extensive sand-hills rising a few hundred feet above the plains. From the Sahara Atlas and from the hills of the S. Sahara descend numerous water-courses, mostly subterranean, towards the plains, enabling the natives by means of irrigation to form a girdle of oases, which like the coast-plains are apt to be malarious in summer.
Climatically also Algeria is a land of striking contrasts. The rainfall in the provinces of Algiers and Constantine, on the coast, and especially in the higher parts of the Tell Atlas, is abundant (thus at Algiers 25 inches, at Blida 37, Bougie 41½, Fort-National 45 inches). Being partly sheltered from the rainy N.W. winds by the Tell Atlas, the Hauts-Plateaux have a lower rainfall (16–20 inches), which as in the Tell often takes the form of snowstorms. In the Sahara Atlas and the Sahara itself, where the dry trade-winds prevail during the greater part of the year, the rainfall diminishes considerably as we go southwards (thus at Biskra 7, at Goléa 2¾ inches). Even in the coast-lands, however, the prolonged drought of summer necessitates the use of artificial irrigation by means of barrages across the valleys. The temperature on the coast varies comparatively little (thus at Algiers 54½° Fahr. in winter, 74° in summer), but the moisture of the air renders it almost unbearably hot in summer. On the Hauts-Plateaux, on the other hand, in the Sahara Atlas, and notably in the Sahara, there are great extremes of heat and cold, the variations not only between summer and winter, but also between day and night (in consequence of the great evaporation after hot, cloudless days) being very marked (thus, minimum at Constantine 16° Fahr., at Aïn-Sefra 17½° at Géryville 8½° Touggourt 19½°; maximum at Géryville 109°, at Biskra 118°, at Touggourt 122°).