34½ M. Port-aux-Poules (Etablissement Thermal), with sulphur-baths, a sea-bathing place in summer. The train skirts the narrow strip of sand-hills and passes the mouth of the Macta.
37 M. La Macta, a village at the N. end of the Marais de la Macta, or swamps of the river-plain of the Sig (p. [206]) and the Habra, very malarious in summer, is connected by a branch-line with (7½ M.) La Stidia, a village founded by German peasants in 1844, and with (18½ M.) Mostaganem (p. [207]).
The train now runs inland, past the E. margin of the morasses, to (48½ M.) Debrousseville, in the broad Plaine de l’Habra. The village belongs to the Domaine de l’Habra et de la Macta, the largest estate in Algeria, watered by a network of cuttings (276 M. in length) from the reservoir of the Oued Fergoug (see below). Since the failure of two private companies the estate has been owned by the Crédit Foncier de France. Of its 70,000 acres 44,000 are pasture-land, and the rest is devoted to grain and fruit. Its headquarters are at La Ferme-Blanche, near the railway.
At (55½ M.) Perrégaux we cross the Oran-Algiers line (p. [206]).
Ascending the valley of the Habra, here called Oued el-Hammam (‘bath-river’), we now penetrate the Beni Chougrane Mts., the N. marginal chain of the Tell Atlas. On the left, just before (61½ M.) Barrage, lies the *Barrage de Perrégaux or de l’Oued Fergoug, the largest reservoir in Algeria, which irrigates some 90,000 acres of land. The embankment, is 550 yds. long, 130 ft. high, and from 130 ft. thick at the bottom to 12½ ft. at the top. The reservoir once contained 33 million tons of water, but the quantity is constantly being diminished by the deposits of the stream.
67½ M. Dublineau (443 ft.). 78 M. Bou-Hanifia is the station for the small baths of Hammam Bou-Hanifia, on the right bank of the Habra, 2½ M. to the S.W. (Bath Hotel). The eight saline springs (136° Fahr.) are the Aquae Sirenses of antiquity.
86 M. Tizi or Thizi (1490 ft.; Rail. Restaur.) in the Plaine d’Eghris, a lofty and fertile tract between the N. lateral chain and the main range of the Tell Atlas.
Branch Line (7½ M., in ca. ½ hr.) from Tizi to Mascara (1903 ft.; Hôt. Bourelly, Rue de Dalmatie, R. 2½, B. 1, déj. 2½ omn. ½ fr., quite good; Hôt. du Luxembourg, Rue Victor-Hugo; Café de la Brasserie, Place Gambetta; pop. 22,930), beautifully situated on a chain of hills on the N. margin of the Eghris plain. This was the capital of the beylic of Oran in 1701–92, and in 1832–41 was the residence and chief stronghold of Abd el-Kâder (p. [221]). The chief quarter of the town, with the Place Gambetta as its centre, has a Mosque (18th cent.) in the Place Nationale, and a Beylic (now military offices), built by Mohammed el-Kebîr (p. [178]), in the street of that name. This quarter is separated by the ravine of the Oued Toudman, now a public park, from the spacious Place de l’Argoub (market on Thurs. and Frid.) and from the barracks quarter. Outside the Porte d’Oran, the W. gate, we have a delightful view. Outside the Bâb-Ali, the N. gate, lies the Mohammedan quarter of that name (where burnouses are woven). Mascara is famed for its wine.
At (93½ M.) Thiersville (1601 ft.) the train crosses a range of hills to the stony tableland of Guerdjoum (much overgrown with dwarf-palms). Beyond (102½ M.) Oued-Taria (1618 ft.) it crosses the brook of that name, the chief feeder of the Habra, and at (110½ M.) Charrier (1792 ft.), in the fertile valley of the Oued Saïda, reaches the main chain of the Tell Atlas. 122 M. Les Eaux-Chaudes, Arabic Hammâm Ouled-Khaled, with saline springs (113° Fahr.); 126½ M. Nazereg (2625 ft.).
129½ M. Saïda (2746 ft.; Hôt. Lugan or Riu, in the market-place, 10 min. from the station, R. 2, D. 3, pens. 7, omn. ½ fr.; Hôt. Vergnon; Hôt. de la Paix; pop. 8100), the southmost town in the Tell Atlas of Oran, founded in 1854, lies in an uninteresting region. In front of the Mairie rises an imposing Monument (1910) to the soldiers of the Foreign Legion who fell in S. Oran. From the Place du Marché Arabe (market on Mon.), where the Mosque is situated, the Rue Thiers and the Rue Nationale lead to the S.W. to the high-lying barracks of the Foreign Legion (p. [186]). Above the market-place lies the Native Quarter.