GEOGRAPHICAL
AND ECONOMICAL SKETCH
 

The English Morocco, French Maroc, Spanish Marruecos are corruptions
of Marrakesh, by which aborigines do not imply a country but a town : the
Capital of the South.

Situation, — Morocco constitutes the W. * extremity of, the country so
(^iversely named : Barbary, Maghreb, Minor Africa, North Africa. It is the
Arabian Maghreb Al Aska ^' The most Westerly Land of the Setting Sun, "
the Sherifflan Empire, so termed with reference to the quality of Sheriff, or
descendant of Mohammed, to which the present dynasty lay claim. It is
compounded of the former kingdoms of Fez, Morocco (Marrakesh), Sus, and
Tafilet, mentioned by European authors of the xvii and xyiii c.

Morocco lies between the 39° and the 33° N. lat. and the 14°'et 4° W. long.
Limited N. and W. by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, connected
by the Straits of Gibraltar, then N.-E. by a political frontier 120 IdL long,
extending from the mouth of the Oued Kiss to Teniet Es Sassi; its frontiers
afterwards become less precise; it is separated from Algeria by a frontier zone,
and towards the S. by the desert regions of Dra and Tafilalet stretching away
to the Sahara.

Morocco covers an approximate area of 500 to 550,000 square k., of which
some 450,000 square k. are under French influence.

Orography. — The mountainous massifs of Morocco stand higher than
those of Algeria and Tunisia, which they prolong. Though precise information
is lacking as yet for some of them, the rough lines of the relief show clearly
enough two principal chains : the Atlas and the Rif.

'The Moroccan Atlas, or inland chain, is part of the hills which range from
Ei to W. of Barbary. It includes the High Atlas, extending for about 1,000 k.
from the High Guir to Cape Ghir, in an E.-N.-E. to W.-S.-W. direction, and
forms the highest part of the orographical system of Morocco, with summits
such as Tamjut Likumt and Ari Aiashi, rising to a height of from 4,000 to
4r,500 metres. The Ante Atlas, branching off from the main rangeat the Jebel
Siriia (about 3,300 m.) at two thirds of its length, starting from the E., extends
from N.-E. to S.-W. as far as the Atlantic, in the Tazerualt, showing an
average height of 1,500 m. The Middle Atlas, a second branch, which is, so
to speak, a prolongation of the latter from S.-W. to N.-E. and which starts at
the Ari Haian (3,000 m.) and reaches as far as the Jebel Tazekka, S. of Taza,
after being 4,000 m. at the Jebel Bu Iblan and 3,219 m. at the Jebel
Miissa ii Salah.

" The J?i/, a chain standing by itself along the seaboard, is in the shape of an arc
bent inland a:nd extending from the peninsula of Melilla to the Jebel Miissa
(865 m.)jthe second Pillar of Hercules, which overlooks Ceuta and faces the
fir.st Pillar, the Rock of Gibraltar. The highest summits of the Rif appear to
be found in the W., at the Jebel Tiziren (2,500 m.).

The depression between the Rif and the lower northern slope of the MiddU
Atlas^ forms a pass, which narrows down to its minimum width in the neigh-