The Coolidge examiner., 1931-07-10

open gap in the traffic by blow
ing a noisy horn.
Back of the busy water front is a
wall with numerous arches leading
to spacious warehouses. The roofs
OF these warehouses form the
Boulevard de la Republique, lined
with six-story buildings housing AL
glerS' banks and business houses.
Pedestrians reach the boulevard by
stairways while vehicles approach
it by ramplike rOadways.
The Boulevard de la RepubliQue
is not only the beginning of Algiers
proper but also the beginning of
the French quarter The native
quarter lies just beyond it, up the
steep hillside. Numerous streets
running at right angles to the
Boulevard de la RepubliQue remind
the traveller of those of Paris.
Plate glass show windows display
the latest French frOcks for wom-
en-, mems haberdashery and other
merchandise. French street cars,
some with American equipment,
clang their way through the narrow
streets and bright -colored autos
stop at the curb where native
chauffeurs, in uniforms from Paris,
assist their passengers, attired in
Partisan modes, to alight.
The only touch of the Orient here
is in the street crowd where white
gowned, yelled Moslem women with
pantaloOns as large as filled potato
sacks rubs elbows with smart
French officers in natty blue uni
forms, 1.-THE French soldiers in blue
Jackets and brick-dust colored pam
falcons, and vacationists from Eng
land, America and France who mi
crate to Algiers annually as New
Workers flock TO Florida. There also
are unveiled Jewesses in gay
dresses and bright shawls; dirty.
ragged, bronze faced, tatOoed
Kabyle women, and natives from
the islands of the Mediterranean.
Up Steps to Native Quarter.
You can throw a stone from the
edge of the French quarter to the
center of the native quarter. Where
the gay. busy French quarter alb
ruptly ends the quiet, native quar-
ter begins. Stairways lead from
the French TO the native quarter.
Mounting the steps one passes from
West to East; from clean. airy
streets into byways too narrow for
vehicles, where upper stories pro-
trude so that windOwsils nearly
meet, Here are bare-legged negroes
from the Sudan. Arabs from the
desert. MaZObites or Sahara Jews,
and a sprinkling of native soldiers.
The narrow northern strip of AL
geria from the first Atlas range to
the cOast-lOOsely called the Tell
in which Algiers is situated. is the
cOuntry's best foot thrust forward
TO meet the visitor. There is a
reasonable amount of rainfall. Wa
ter from the mountains is available
and has been utilized for irrigation:
and the countryside smiles with ag-
ricultural prosperity. Here are
orange groves, palm trees. great
fields of vegetables that supply
many of EurOpe's early markets.
and huge vineyards that rival those
of southern France Westward
where the Tell is wider are cotton
fields; and both westward and east
ward of the vineyards. and truck
farms are grain fields. BY means
Cf dry farming considerable quan-
titles of grain are grown also on
parts of the semi-arid plains south
of the Tell.
For the most part, however, the
dry plains region between the main
mountain chains is sparsely settled
and is given over to sheep and goat
grazing and to the collection of alta
grass for shipment for paper max
ing. The best grazing lands of the
colony are south Of the Saharan
Atlas mountains on the high pla-
teau, and north of the desert.
One constructive activity that has
dominated all else in Algeria since
the French occupation is the search
for water and its conservation.
Both the Atlas ranges are snow
capped and feed numerous streams.
most of which are temporary. MANY
reservoirs have been built to can
ture the surface water from these
torrents; and that which sinks into
the earth has been brought TO sight
again through wells Even in the
heart of the desert, old Oases have
been rejuvenated and new ones ere.
ated by the discovery and opening
up of artesian supplies of water
Many millions of francs have been
added to crop values by the innum-
erable rills of irrigation water that
France is spreading on Aigeria's
dry but fertile soil.