Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/863

Rh are few and for the most part feebly marked. South ward from Cape Spartel the shore sinks rapidly till it is within a few feet of the sea-level. In the low cliff which it forms about 4i miles from the lighthouse there is a great quarry, which from remote antiquity has yielded the hand - mills used in the Tangiers district. A stretch of low marshy ground along the Tahaddart the estuary of the Wadi Kebir (W. Muharhar) and W. al-Kharrub agrees with Scylax s Gulf of Cotes (Tissot). Three or four miles farther south lie the ruins of the town of Nebrosh, built by Moors from Andalusia ; and 4 or 5 miles more bring us to Azila or Arzilla, the ancient Colonia Julia Constantia Zilis or Zeles. Since its bombardment by the Austrians in 1829 it has been a wretched little place, with a mixed Moorish and Jewish population of about 1200. 1 For the next 16 miles, between AzilA and Larash or EL-ARAISH (q.v.) the coast has a tolerably bold background of hills, Jebel Sarsar near Fez forming an important landmark for the latter town, which, with its Phoenician, Roman, and mediaeval remains, is historically one of the most interesting places in Morocco. A line of reddish cliffs about 300 feet high runs south for about 10 miles from the W. Aulkos, at whose mouth the town is built ; then the coast sinks till it reaches MulA Bu Selham, an eminence 220 feet high. Between MulA Bii Selham (often wrongly called Old Mamura or Marmore) and a similar height crowned by the tomb of Sidi Abd Allah JeliH lies the outlet of the Blue Lake (Marja ZarkA), 10 or 12 miles long. Farther south, and separated from the sea by an unbroken line of rounded hills (230-260 feet), is the much more extensive lagoon of Has al-Dura, which in the dry season becomes a series of marshy meres, but in the rainy season fills up and discharges into the Sebii. Eastward it is connected with the Marjat al-Gharb, fed by the W. Meda. On the south side of the outlet of the Sebii lies Ma miira, probably founded by Abd al- Mumen, and originally named Mahdlya, after the Almohade Mahdi. Twenty miles farther is the mouth of the Bu Rakrak, with its cluster of interesting towns : Sallee (Salat) on the north side, long famous for its piracies and still one of the most fanatical places in the empire, and on the south side New Sallee (Rabat) with its conspicuous tower of Hasan, and Sheila (Sella of Leo Africanus) with its inter esting ruins. Onward for 100 miles to Point Azammur and the mouth of the Umm Rabf river a line of hills skirts the sea ; the shore is for the most part low, and, with the exception of capes at FadAla (a small village) and Ddr al- BaidA or Casa Blanca, it runs in a straight line west-south west. Casa Blanca, the ancient AnfA, once a flourishing port, was ruined by the Portuguese (1468) in revenge for its piracies. It is now a place of 4000 inhabitants, and has a thriving export trade in maize, beans, and wool, and a European colony of about 100 persons. Azammur (that is, in Berber, &quot; The Olives,&quot; viz., of the Sheikh Bu Shuaib), with 1000 inhabitants dependent on the shebbel fisheries in the river, stands on an eminence about 1J miles from the sea on the south side of the Umm Rabf. The bay of Mazagan (MAzighan), a few miles to the south, curves westward with a boldness of sweep unusual on this coast. The town of Mazagan was founded by the Portu guese in 1506, and held by them till 1769. 2 About 8 miles to the south and less than a mile inland lie the extensive ruins of Tit, a town which proved a thorn in the side of the people of Mazagan till they sallied forth 1 The absurd story that about the 9th century it was an English possession has its root in the visits of the Normans to this quarter. The modern town sprang from a fortress built to protect the coast against them (Dozy, Recherches, 3d ed., ii. 264 sq.). - The Portuguese settlers, who had to leave it when Don Jose decided on surrendering this last stronghold of his country in Morocco, were after wards sent to Brazil, where they founded Villa Nova de Mazagan. 831 and destroyed it. At Cape Blanc (so called from its white cliffs) the coast, which bulged out at Cape Mazagan, again bends east to resume much the same general direction for 55 miles to Cape Cantin. On this stretch the only point of interest is Walidfya, formerly Al-Ghait ; the excellent harbour praised by Edrisi is formed by an extensive lagoon, and M. Tissot thinks that by a little dredging the place would again become the safest ship ping station on the whole Morocco seaboard. 3 Beyond Cape Cantin (300 feet high) the coast becomes bolder and more irregular, especially after the mouth of the Tensift is passed. About 18 miles farther lies Saffi (Asfi), &quot;by far the most picturesque spot on the west coast,&quot; with the high walls and square towers of its Portuguese fortifications shown to advantage by the ruggedness of the site. South of MoGADOR((?.t),and onwards beyond the limits of Morocco, the coast, becoming ever more and more inaccessible and dangerous in winter, is emphatically known as the Iron Coast. From Cape Sim or Ossim (Ras Tagriwalt), 10 miles south of Mogador, the direction is due south to Cape Gir (Igir Ufrani), the termination of Jebel Ida u Tanan (Rabbi Mardochee), the last spur of the Atlas proper. Rounding this headland we reach Agadir (Agadir n Igir), the Santa Cruz Major or Santa Cruz de Berberia of the Spaniards, formerly known as the Gate of the Soudan. 4 It is a little town with white battlements three-quarters of a mile in circumference, on a steep eminence 600 feet high. In the 15th century it was seized by the Portuguese, and Don Manuel caused it to be fortified; but in 1536 it was captured by Muley (MaulAi) Ahmed al-Hasan. Its merchants were removed to Mogador in 1773. At the mouth of the Sus Leo places three little towns called Messa (MAssa), with a mosque popularly reputed the scene of Jonah s restoration to terra firma. The port of this name, 5 regularly visited by the Genoese traders in the 16th century, who exported skins, gum, wax, gold, and indigo, is no doubt at the mouth of the W. MAssa, 20 miles farther south. fr Ifni, situated in 29 23 N. lat., and Sidi Worzek, the Cape Non 7 of the Portuguese, are the only points calling for notice till the better known Cape Nun is reached, which lies 5 or 6 miles north of the W. Der a. With the Der a the Sahara may be said to begin. On most maps the interior of Morocco is represented as extremely mountainous ; but, while it is traversed from east to west by more than one strongly-defined range, the greater part of the surface is really occupied by undulating steppe- like tracts diversified by low hills. The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas (Daran of the Berbers). 8 At its western extremity the range averages from 4000 to- 5000 feet in height ; after a slight falling off for a few miles it rises till it attains an elevation of 10,000 feet ; beyond the pass (about 60 miles from the sea) which lead& from Morocco to TAriidant the summits seem to be between 11,000 and 11,500 feet; about 40 miles farther east there is a second pass at an altitude of about 7000 feet ; and beyond that the main ridge continues 30 miles at a height of about 12,000 feet, with a few peaks reaching to 13,000 or 13,500 feet. Snow lies on some of the summits as late 3 Bull, de la Soc. de Geogr., Paris, 1875. 4 This must not be confounded with Santa Cruz de Mar Pequefia, a post established in 1476 somewhere on this coast by Herrera, lord of the Canary Islands, and in modern times the subject of much geo graphical disputation. After obtaining permission to reoccupy the site the Spanish Government was unable to identify it. 5 See Valentin Ferdinand, Bcschreibitng West Afrikas (Mem. of the Acad. of Munich, 3d Class, pt. viii. ). 6 Ya kiibi, Descr. al-Maghribi, p. 126 ; Hist, dfs Berberes, ii. 279. 7 No, Non, Nor, Naum, Nao, are among the various readings. It was another Cape Non to the south of Cape Bojador which seems to- have given rise to the proverb, Quern pasar o cabo de Xao ou tornara ou ndo. See Bol. de la Soc. Geogr., p. 316, Madrid, 1880. 8 Pliny says the natives called the Atlas &quot;Dyrin.&quot;