214

CHAPTER XIX.

ORAN AND TLEMCEN.

THE diligence, or rather series of diligences,

of the Messageries Impériales carried us in a tiresome journey of three very long days through the plains that stretch from Miliana to Oran. The roads in some places are really awful, and unfit for such unwieldy vehicles as those employed for the purpose. In spite of the seven or eight horses attached to the conveyance, we stuck perpetually in ditch and mire, and were more than once on the eve of a capsize. We were landed the first evening at Orleansville, a pretty little town, with an excellent hotel (rather a rara avis, by the way). This town is said to have in store for it a

brilliant future. It will be, when the railroad is completed (in about four years' time), one of the centres of commerce between Algiers and Oran. At present it is in its infancy, not counting more than 2,000 souls.

Soon after leaving Orleansville we entered the province of Oran, which covers an area of 10,000,000 acres, hills and valleys and pastureground; while about a seventh of its superficies is occupied by woods and forests. The orographic aspect of the province is remarkable for its regularity, four mountain-chains, one behind the other, running parallel to the sea. The sides of the chains that look towards the water are abrupt and rocky, while those on the southern side slope gradually into long stretches of plain. Many of the mountains have flat horizontal tops, cutting against the African sky, as though their heads had been sliced away.

The

The climate of Oran is said to be hotter and drier than that of the other provinces. rainy season is one-third shorter in duration than

216

MINERAL WEALTH.

in Constantine, and snow is hardly ever known to fall.

This province, too, is by far the richest of the three in mineral wealth. The lead, copper, and iron, which are found about Tlemcen and GarRouban, are reckoned as fine in quality as any that we can show at home. Much translucid onyx and alabaster, dug from the quarries of SidiKassen, has been sent this year to adorn the Paris Exhibition. 5,000 tons of excellent salt are produced annually from the lake of Arzen, and enormous quantities of pottery-earth find their way yearly to the European markets.

The principal trees that form the forests are oak, cedar, thuya, and pine, not forgetting the olive, which grows around Tlemcen into a forestking, and becomes the staple of a considerable

commerce.

The statistical columns of the Government documents, dated 30th June, 1864, gave the following report of the population of the pro

vince :

In 1859 there were 7620 pupils, European and African, in the different national schools.

So far I have said nothing but what is favourable of the province. In speaking of its commercial status it must be far otherwise. Many efforts have been made, and many expedients have

been tried, but as yet no adequate returns have repaid the zeal and perseverance of the first pioneers of civilization.

In agriculture, having learnt by experience that all cereals, save oats, yielded very uncertain crops, from lack of irrigation, the colonists tried the vine. It has succeeded admirably, particularly in the neighbourhood of Mostaganem and Mascara, but its produce cannot as yet bear comparison with that of the mother country. Cotton, too, is meeting with considerable success; that of Oran has always carried off the prizes in the Government Exhibitions.

But, in order that all these essays may answer expectation, it is indispensable to possess a perfect and direct outlet and means of communication. The railway, it is to be hoped, will be completed some day; but meanwhile the only provincial roads and arteries of commerce are impassable during the rainy season! For want of ports, the entire trade of the province centres in the town of Oran. It is there that grain, wool, oil, skins,