Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/138

 128 F E Z F E Z for a time the city flourished ; but the vices and traditional conservatism of the Moslem religion prevented permanent improvement, so that it gradually sank to the unknown and unimportant position it now occupies. During the summer the heat is intense, but in winter the climate is excellent. Travellers differ much as to the number of inhabitants. Dr Leared computes them at from 45,000 to 50,000, but without sufficient data. Berbers, Arabs, negroes, and Jews are the principal races dwelling in the city. The Jews suffer great persecutions and many indignities, but many of them contrive to amass money. The best method of reaching Fez is from Tangier, the total distance being about 160 miles. The road, though a mere bridle path, is quite practicable for camels and horses. There are numerous towns and villages at suitable distances, which afford convenient halting-places for travellers. Authorities. Leo Africanus, Barth, llohlfs, Edmondo de Amicis, Dr Vogel, and Dr Leared. ( C. B. N.) FEZZAN (the ancient Phazania, or country of the Gara- mantes), a country of the Sahara region of North Africa, forming a &quot; kaimakamlik &quot; of the, Ottoman vilayet of Tri poli, extends 390 miles N. to S. from the town of Bonjem, lat. 30 40 N., to Bir Omah, on the route from Murzuk to | Bornu, in lat. 24 10 N. ; and 420 miles E. to W. from the Akakus Mountains near Ghat in long. 10 30 W. to j the village of Wau-Squair in long. 18 20 W. Its ill- [ defined limits run from Bonjem, within 50 miles of the Mediterranean on the north, south-westward by the Bir- i el-Hassi to the Akakus range east of Ghat, thence east- j ward to the Bir Omah south of the village of Tejerri, from that to Wau-Squair or Wau-Namus at its south-eastern corner, and thence northward past Zella to Bonjem, em- j bracing an area of about 156,000 English square miles, or nearly three times the extent of England. The general form of the country is determined by the , ranges of hills called the Jebel-es-Soda or Black Mountain, and the Haruj-el-Asvvad or Black Haruj, which cross it along the parallel of 23 N., forming the northern edge of a broad desert plateau and the water-parting of the , Mediterranean drainage slope, and shutting off the northern j region from the depressions in which lie the oases of Fezzan proper in the south. The Jebel-es-S6da is described by M. Duveyrier as an isolated volcanic mass in the midst of a hammada or bare desert plateau of white limestone. Its length E. to W. is about 170 miles. At a point near the pass by which M. Duveyrier crossed it, a summit reaches a height of 2415 feet; where Rohlfs (Quer durch Afrika, Leipsic, 1874) passed over it between Tripoli arid Murzuk he found its height to be 2982 feet. The volcanic mass of the Haruj continues the line of the Soda in a S.E. direction for about 150 miles, and is crossed obliquely by the caravan routes from Fezzan to Egypt. Where Von Beurmann crossed the Haruj on the route from Zella to Murzuk he estimates i its height at 16GO feet. The plateau of which these ranges mark the northern edge appears to be a continua tion of the great desert plateau of Tripoli called the Ham- mada-el-Homra, and to have a general width of about 70 miles ; where it is crossed on the western route over the Soda it is described as shingly broken table-land, scattered over with large sandstone blocks; in the neigh bourhood of the Haruj on the east it presents a series of ridges running in different directions 8 to 12 feet above the intermediate land. The wadis or periodically filled rain-channels which drain northward from these heights are for the most part tributaries of the Wadi-Um-el-Cheil, which is called Wadi Bel where it opens on the coast of the greater Syrtis, and of the Wadi Tamet east of the former. The southern edge of the plateau behind the Soda descends to the Wadi-e-Shati running east and west ; then follows a latitudinal belt of about 70 miles in average width, occupied by the sand dunes of Edeyen 1 which run across the frontier from the north of the Tuareg plateau in the west, and in the east by tierir, the name applied to districts which differ from the hammada or true plateaus, in being less elevated and everywhere covered with coarse gravel or rounded water-worn stones, in contrast to the sharply broken blocks scattered on the higher table-lands. To this follows south ward the narrower belt called the Hammada of Murzuk, of inconsiderable elevation, marked out on the north side by the Amsak ridge which falls to the Wadi-el-Gharbi and its continuation the Wadi-e-Sherki at its base, and which descends on the south to the line of 7/o/ra, or slight depres sions in which lie the oasis groups of Murzuk, Zuila, and Wau. Along the northern side of the Wadi-e-Sherki and Wadi-el-Gharbi, about 60 miles N.W. of Murzuk, lie the celebrated Trona lakes of Fezzan, which were first described by Dr Vogel. They are situated in a desert of drift sand in which the camels sink up to their bellies ; one of them, the Bahr-el-Daud (Dauda = &quot; worm&quot;), contains the remark able shrimp noticed below. In general the surface of Fez zan does not vary greatly in elevation ; its numerous wadis do not lie much below the level of the Serir; the height of Murzuk, for example, is estimated by Rohlfs at 1804 feet, or little below the general level of the hammada in the north. Climate. The average temperature of Murzuk was found by Rohlfs to be 70 F., or 6 lower than that of Ghadames on the borders of western Tripoli. This difference he accounts for by the greater winter cold, for the heat of summer is probably greater here than in Tripoli ; and his meteorological tables show such low temperatures as 25 F. at sunrise on the 20th of December, or 23 F. on the 30th of January, the thermometer having fallen below the freezing point 24 times within three months. As in ad the rest of the desert, the climate is a very regular one, and is in general healthy, the dryness of the air in summer making the heat more bearable than on the sea coast, where the moisture of the atmosphere hinders evaporation from the skin. Although Fezzan does not lie within the zone of the tropical rains, and scarcely touches the limit of the winter rains supplied by the Mediterranean, it is visited at rare intervals by showers from the south. An almost per petual blue sky overhangs the desert, and the people of Fezzan are so unaccustomed to and so ill-prepared for wet weather that, as in Tuat and Tidikelt, they pray to be spared from rain. They are not dependent upon it, for water is found almost everj where at small depths, and little trouble is required to draw it from wells worked by men or camels for the purposes of irrigation ; the palm groves, indeed, require no artificial watering, since their roots strike deep enough to reach the water-bearing stratum. Products. In the oases and cultivated spots of Fezzan there are generally five grain harvests in the year: in the winter months wheat and barley are sown, and in spring, summer, and autumn the various kinds of durra, especially ksob and gafoli. Ksob, first sown in March, is planted and reaped four times successively, although the last harvest in December does not ripen, so that it is used only as fodder for cattle. From year s end to year s end all kinds of vegetables could be produced, but only a few sorts, such as melons and cucumbers in summer, turnips and tubers in autumn, beans in winter, &amp;lt;tc., are grown. Among other cultivated plants are tobacco (small and bad) and cotton. The latter flourishes, is perennial for six or seven years, and gives large pods of moderate length of staple. Olives, 1 &quot;Edeyen &quot; in Tenuhag signifies dunes. Duveyrier.