River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1925-06-25

goats and donkeys are brought within
the enclosure.
In Morocco there are more sheep
than people Barbary focks are not
driven, as in most parts of the world,
but follow the shepherd, who calls to
his sheep as he would call to little
children. Perched on rocks, with their
fiocks about them, the half-clad Berber
boys play the most mournful tunes
imaginable on their ancient pipes.
Is Well Watered Country.
The broad Muluya river is the first
striking geographic feature encountered
on the trip from Ujda to Fee. This
must be crossed by automobiles on
the railroad bridge. Morocco, usually
thought of by outsiders as a dry, semi
desert region, is in reality well wa
tered over much Of its area. 1t is
drained In three directions. Rivers,
whose headwaters In the Atlas are
within a limited circle, flow to the At
Iantic, the Mediterranean, and the Sa-
hara, the last-named streams being
lost In the thirsty sand. The Muluya
flows northeast from the Atlas to the
Mediterranean.
This fact is worth emphasizing: at
the mouth Of the Muluya, French
Morocco has her corridor to the Medi-
terranean, q fact often overlooked by
those who examine small-scale maps.
Like the Sebu river, flowing from Fee
to the Atlantic, the Muluya can be
canalized over much OF it's course, &C.
cording to French engineers. The
French are negotiating with the Span.
ish In regard to the building Of port
near the Muluya's mouth.
Much of the line along the Ujda-Fez
route has been held by Senegalese
troops. OF all the soldiers of Frances
mighty colonial army-Frenchmen, Lee
gionnaires, Arabs, Berbers and black
men from many an equatorial cline
none are drawer than these giant
framed, ebony-skinned men of Senegal.
Within the walled military enclosure
at Gersif one sees the dwellings of
these warriOrs-circular adobe huts
with conical matched roofs, not unlike
the sort they have at home.
The Touahar Pass.
From Gersif the road climbs to the
terraced hill town Of Taxa, boldly COM
handing the Touahar pass between the
northwest frontier province of India
and Afghanistan. Like the Khyber,
this pass has known hard fighting. Men
Of the Stone age fought here, and men
Roman legions. Here through the CEN
turtles fiocked the Berber hordes, sway
ing east and west
The beautiful part Of the journey Is
from Taxa on. The blue Riffian hills to
the north are without snow, but to the
south the peaks of the Middle Atlas lift
their crystal-crowned heads to the CO.
bait sky. In the emerald bottom lands
below the road sleek cattle Craze. Far
ahead, on distant hillside, in q spash
Of white, the traveller gets his first
glimpse Of Fee.
From Fee the trail reaches Mekinez
In two hours by perfect motor high
way or by broad-gauge railway, with
finer coaches than are in use In most
parts of Europe. Not far away, among
the silent Zerhoun hills are the ruins
Of Roman Volubilis, where French
psychologists are piecing together frag-
ments of stories In stone. While not
as imposing as the Roman ruins of
eastern Algeria or Tunisia, Volubilis
and other sites nearer the Atlantic
speak Of those days when Mauritania
was more than a name on the map.
The end Of the crosse Moroccan trail
is Rabat-Sale, twin cities, separated
by the wide Blu Regreg. river. The one,
with its great citadel mounted proudly
on the cliff where the river meets the
sea, now merges into the progressive
French capital The other. quiet and
white as snowdrift, beside the rest
less gray ocean. is little changed since
those adventurous dayk when it har.
bored the fierce Barbary pirates known
TO Britons as the sally Rovers," who
plundered the coasts OF southern Eu.
rope, sailing os far north as the Brit
ish Isles.