Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/264

 their property, the population has diminished, and hyænas prowl around the town-walls. Coffee-growing is the principal occupation of the region around Harrar and in the plains tilled by the Gallas; the berry, which is of a superior quality, is exported from Hodeidah and Aden, under the name of "Mocha." Like the Yemen Arabs, the Harrari do not infuse the coffee, although they drink decoctions of bark and dried leaves. Tobacco, the opium poppy, bananas, oranges, and grapes are also produced on the plains of Harrar; the potato has recently been introduced, and all the vegetables imported from Europe have thrived well. In its forests

Giuletti has discovered the coffar, or musical acacia, which Schweinfurth describes on the banks of the Nile, at the confluence of the Sobat.

Two routes, often blocked by the inroads of plundering hordes, lead from Harrar to Zeïla. One crosses a ridge to the north of the town, thence redescending into the basin of the Awash by the Galdessa Pass and valley, and from this point running towards the sea through the Issa territory, which is crossed by a chain of trachytic rocks trending southwards. The other and more direct but more rugged route ascends north-eastwards towards the Darmi Pass, crossing the country of the Gadibursis or Gudabursis. The town of Zeïla lies south of a small archipelago of islets and reefs on a point of the coast where it is hemmed in by the Gadibursi tribe. It has two ports, one frequented by boats but impracticable for ships, whilst the other, not far south of the town, although very narrow, is from 26 to 33