Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/342

 276 NOETU-WEST AFRICA. lying and unhealthy swampy tract has been gradually reclaimed with great labour and risk by the European settlers, and although still partly under scrub, is now on the whole the best cultivated district in Algeria. Beyond Menerville, on the route between Great Kabylia and the Mitija, the first large town is Alma, and in the neighbouring Ilamiz Valley the chief place is Fonduk, formerly an important station on the route to the Upper Isser. Fonduk lies 4 miles below the vast barrage which dams up for irrigation purposes some 500,000,000 cubic feet of water, and beyond it the Hamiz enters the district of Ruiba, another large village with a departmental school of agriculture. Between the mouth of the river and Cape Matifu are the ruins of the Roman city of RusguHia, which have supplied the materials for many buildings in Algiers. In the southern district of the Wed Harrash basin the chief places are Roviyo and Sidi-Mussa. In a gorge of the Upper Harrash, 5 miles south of Rovigo, are the saline thermal springs of Ilammam Melwan, frequented by the surrounding Arabs, and even by the Jews and Moors of Algiers. The Maison-Carree, so named from a Turkish barracks now used as a prison, has become the centre of a rapidly increasing population in the same basin, at the point where the railway from Algiers branches off eastwards to Constantine, and westwards to Oran. Like nusnein-dci/, it may be regarded as an industrial suburb of the capital, from which it is distant about 6 miles. A slight eminence in the centre of the Mitija plain is occupied by Bnforik, whose market has from remote times been frequented by the surrounding Arab tribes. Its fairs are still visited by thousands of natives, with whom are now associated the European settlers, whose patient industry has gradually converted this malarious swampy district into a fertile garden. A few miles to the east is Shcbli, noted for its excellent tobacco. B I.I HA KOLE A TiPAZA. Blida, the chief town in the ALitija basin, although an ancient place, is first mentioned in Mediaeval times, when it appears to have borne the name of Mitija, like the plain whose southern section it commands. Under the Turkish rule it became a retreat for the wealthy inhabitants of Algiers ; but in the earthquake of 1825 its buildings were overthrown, and half the population buried, under the ruins. Then came the sieges and assaults attending the French conquest, reducing it to a heap of ruins when finally occupied in 1839. Hence the new town presents a thoroughly Euroix;an aspect, preserving scarcely a single mosque and a few Arab houses of the former epoch. Of all Algerian towns it abounds most in orange groves, the mandarine variety of which is famous throughout the world. Thanks to the abundant waters of the Wed-el-Kebir, flowing -from the Beni-Salah hills, it also possesses some mills and factories. Blida will soon become the starting-point of a railway, which penetrates southwards into the Shiffa valley in the direction of Laghwat.