THE LAND OF THE MOORS
PART I—NATURAL
P
CH A PTER TH E F IR S T
PHYSICAL FEATURES
“ Quantus erat, mons factus Atlas. Nam barba comaeque
In silvas abeunt, juga sunt umerique manusque;
Quod caput ante fuit, summo est in monte cacumen;
Ossa lapis hunt, turn partes auctus in omnes
Crevit in inmensum— sic, di, statuistisjStet omne
Cum tot sideribus caelum requievit in illo.”
O v id , M e tam .: iv. 657.
H Y S IC A L L Y considered, Morocco is marked by few
prominent features, but it is rich in the classic Atlas.
The possession of this range distinguishes it from the
i other countries of North Africa, affecting its climate, its
| productiveness and its natural resourcesw h ile
the influence upon its people is almost as great. The m shtv
{The height to which the Atlas rises in Morocco
is sufficient to protect the central and northern portions
|from the furnace blasts which render summer in Algeria
unbearable, and although at certain periods in southern
and trans-Atlantic* Morocco, hot winds blow which render
life intolerable, in the sheltered northern districts there
is only the locally heated air o f the cis-Atlantic plains
to be agitated.
M hI b B H ■ f0r the inCon'ect application of this epithet
¡O c e a n _ t7 c^ ’J hlCh.iS S S f f l H S K ' ' ^yond the Atlantic
I ot trans-Atlantic — i.e. beyond the Atlas Mountains.