Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/400

 districts are either grazing-grounds left in a state of nature, or subjected to a rudimentary system of tillage. Even in the Tell vast tracts are absolutely barren, while on the plateaux argillaceous or saline wastes cover boundless spaces. Most of the now treeless northern parts might, however, be clothed with a forest vegetation, and thus play an important part in modifying the climate and developing the economic conditions of the land.

According to the official returns, of the 35,000,000 acres representing the surface of the Tell, nearly 2,000,000 are under forests. The intermediate region of the plateaux and shotts, with the approaches to the Sahara, comprise a further wooded area of 220,000 acres, at least if public documents issued in 1885 can be trusted. But most of these so-called "forests," or "woods," are mere thickets and

scrub, and in some places little more than open spaces dotted over here and there with a few clumps of stunted shrubs. The 2,000,000 acres of forest placed, in 1884, under Government agents yielded only £20,000, or little more than fivepence per acre. The only well-preserved woods are those of East Algeria, of some parts of Kabylia, and of Teniet-el-Haad in the uplands stretching east of the Warsenis district.

These woods, consisting chiefly of cedars, cover a space of 7,500 acres, at altitudes"

varying from 4,000 to 5,600 feet. In general, forest-trees may be said to diminish from east to west, in the same proportion as the rainfall. In the province of Constantine they are still numerous, and in that of Algiers already thinly scattered, while in Orania they have almost disappeared.

The chief agent in the destruction of the woodlands is fire. In order to enlarge