. The Mediterranean : its storied cities and venerable ruins . rainfall. ^i A LGIERS, says the Arab poet, with genuine/-\ Oriental love of precious stones in literature, is a pearl set in emeralds. And even inthese degenerate days of Frank supremacy in Islam, theold Moorish town still gleams white in the sun againsta deep background of green hillside, a true pearl amongemeralds. For it is a great mistake to imagine NorthAfrica, as untravelled folk suppose, a dry and desertcountry of arid rocky mountains. The whole strip oflaughing coast which has the Atlas for its backbone mayrank, on the cont
. The Mediterranean : its storied cities and venerable ruins . rainfall. ^i A LGIERS, says the Arab poet, with genuine/-\ Oriental love of precious stones in literature, is a pearl set in emeralds. And even inthese degenerate days of Frank supremacy in Islam, theold Moorish town still gleams white in the sun againsta deep background of green hillside, a true pearl amongemeralds. For it is a great mistake to imagine NorthAfrica, as untravelled folk suppose, a dry and desertcountry of arid rocky mountains. The whole strip oflaughing coast which has the Atlas for its backbone mayrank, on the contrary, as about the dampest, greenest,and most luxuriant region of the Mediterranean home of the Barbary corsairs is a land of high moun-tains, deep glens, great gorges; a land of vast pine forestsand thick, verdant undergrowth. A thousand nilstumble headlong down its rich ravines; a thousandrivers flow fast through its fertile valleys. For wildflowers Algeria is probably unequaled in the wholeworld; its general aspect in many ways recalls on a 28. THE SAHEL 29 smaller scale the less snow-clad parts of easternSwitzerland. When you approach the old pirate-nest from the sea,the first glimpse of the African coast that greets yourexpectant eye is a long, serrated chain of great sun-smitten mountains away inland and southward. As thesteamer nears the land, you begin, after a while, to dis-tinguish the snowy ridge of the glorious Djurjura, whichis the Bernese Oberland of Algeria, a huge block of rear-ing peaks, their summits thick-covered by the virginsnow that feeds in spring a score of leaping , with still nearer approach, a wide bay dis-closes itself, and a little range of green hills in the fore-ground detaches itself by degrees from the darker massof the Atlas looming large in the distance behind. Thislittle range is the Sahel, an outlier just separated fromthe main chain in the rear by the once marshy plain ofthe Metidja, now converted by drainage an
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