Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/362

 290 NOETH-WEST AFRICA. ores, and com are shipped in exchange for European wares. A pier over half a mile long, which springs from the foot of Fort Laraoune (La Moune, Mona), advances to depths of Go feet, enclosing a space of about 60 acres, divided by secondary piers into secondary basins, which afford sufficient accommodation for the largest vessels. The great advantage of the port of Oran is its proximity to Spain, being only 120 miles, or eight hours by steam from Carthagena. Its total yearly trade, which has doubled during the last ten years, now exceeds 1,230,000 tons, exclusive of the local fisheries, valued kt about £30,000. West of the Jebel Santon stretches the so-called Plain of the Andalusians, si triano-ular tract terminating northwards at Cape Falcon, and laid out in vineyards dotted over with pleasant liamlets. It takes its name from the Andalusian Moors, who after their expulsion from Spain settled here in large numbers. Four miles south of this point the unfinished railway branching off from the main line to Alo-iors in the direction of Marocco passes by MiHserghin, one of the chief agri- cultural centres of the department. Near the neighbouring sebkha, which has already been partly drained, follow at short intervals the towns of Bu-TkHs, Lurtnel and Ef-Rahel, and beyond the Rio Salado, but still in the same basin, Ain-Tcmusheut, the Timici of the Romans, on a high cliff in a rich mineral district. South of this place are the famous onyx mines of Ain-Tckbaiek, already known to the Romans, and still the richest in the province. Tlemcen — Nemours. In the basin of the Upper Isser, an eastern branch of the Tafna, the chief commune is that of Lamoriciere, a future station of the railway intended to connect Oran with Tlemcen through Sidi-bel- Abbes. Tlemcen, on a small affluent of the Isser, at the northern foot of a rocky eminence over 2,600 feet high, ranks fifth for population and first for historic memories of all the Algerian towns. It is pleasantly situated on a terrace planted with fruit-trees of all sorts, whence the Roman colony took the name of Pomaria. But the Roman settlement lay more to the south-east, where are still visible the remains of Agadir, or the " Ramparts." Its materials served as a quarry to build the western towij of Tagrart, now known as Tlemcen, which became the metropolis of the great Zenata Berber confederation. Frequently besieged, stormed, wasted with hunger and the sword, if nevertheless rose to great power during the fifteenth century, when it was said to contain twenty- five thousand families. At that flourishing epoch it rivalled the great European cities as a centre of trade, the industries, wealth, the arts and sciences; like Cordova, Seville, and Grenada, it furnished a fresh proof of the high degree of culture to which the Berber race is capable of attaining. The minarets and cupolas of its mosques, its carvings and mural arabesques perpetuate the renown of the Zenata artists, while the chronicles record the artistic marvels displayed at the Court of Tlemcen,