central facies with Micraster peini; a meridional facies with Ostrea; and a northern facies developed round Tunisia with large forms of Inoceramus and echinoids. Phosphatic deposits are well developed among the Lower Eocene rocks. The Middle Eocene is characterized by the presence of Ostrea bogharensis and the Upper Eocene by highly fossiliferous sandstones and marls. The Oligocene and Miocene formations are present, but the Upper Miocene is confined to the coast. Quaternary deposits cover much of the desert regions.[1]]
Minerals.—Coal has been discovered in the Khmir (“Kroumir”) country, but the principal mines at present worked in Tunisia are those of copper, lead and zinc. Zinc is chiefly found in the form of calamine. Iron is worked in the Kef district. Valuable deposits of phosphates are present, chiefly in the south-west of Tunisia, in the district of Gafsa. Marble is found in the valley of the Majerda (at Shemtu), at Jebel Ust (about 35 m. south of Tunis), and at ]ebel Dissa, near Gabes. The marbles of Shemtu are the finest pink Numidian marbles, which were much esteemed by the Carthaginians and Romans. It has been sought to work again the ancient quarries of Shemtu, but it was found that the marble had been spoilt by ferruginous and calcareous veins.
Flora.—The flora of Tunisia is very nearly identical with that of Algeria, though it offers a few species either peculiar to itself or not found in the last-named country. On the whole its character is less Saharan than that of arts of Algeria, for the influences of the desert do not penetrate so far north in Tunisia as they do in Algeria. There are very few patches of real forest outside the Khmir country,” though it is probable that in the time of the Romans the land was a good deal more covered with trees than at the present day. Some authorities, however, dispute this, in a measure, by saying that it was not naturally forested, and that the trees growing represented orchards of olives or other fruit trees planted by the Romans or womanized Berbers. But in the Majerda Mountains there are dense primeval forests lingering to the present day, and consisting chiefly of the cork oak (Quercus ruber), and two other species of oak (Quercus mirbeckii and Q. kermes), the pistachio or terebinth tree, the sumach (Rhus pentaphila), and other species of Rhus which are widely spread. In the mountains of Khmiria and the central plateau there are also the alder, the poplar, the Aleppo pine, the caroub, the tamarisk, the maple, the nettle-tree, several willows and junipers. The jujube-tree (Zizyphus) is found at various places along the eastern littoral. The retama shrub is met with in sandy districts, especially in the Sahara, but also right up to the north of Tunisia. The wild olive, the wild cherry, two species of wild plums, the myrtle, the ivy, arbutus, and two species of holly are found in the mountains of Khmiria, at various sites at high elevation near Tunis and Bizerta, and along the mountainous belt of the south-west which forms the frontier region between Tunisia and Algeria. The present writer, riding up to these frontier mountains from the thoroughly Saharan country round Gafsa, found himself surrounded by a flora very reminiscent of Switzerland or England. On the other hand, the flora of the shat region, of the south-eastern littoral, and of the Kerkena islands opposite Sfax, is thoroughly Saharan, with a dash, as it were, in places of an African element. The date palm grows wild, as has been already related, in Jerba. The only other species of palm found wild in Tunisia is the Chamaerops humilis, or dwarf palm, which is found on the mountains of the north at no very great altitude. The wild flowers of the north of Tunisia are so extremely beautiful during the months of February, March and April as to constitute a distinct attraction in themselves.”[2]
Fauna.—The fauna of Tunisia at the present day is much impoverished as regards mammals, birds and reptiles. In 1880 the present writer saw lions killed in the north-west of Tunisia, but by 1902 the lion was regarded as practically extinct in the regency, though occasional rumours of his appearance come from the Khmir Mountains and near Feriana. Leopards of large size are still found in the north-west of central Tunisia. The cheetah lingers in the extreme south of the Jerīd; so also does the caracal lynx. The pardine lynx is found fairly abundantly in the west of Tunisia in the mountains and forest. The striped hyena is scattered over the country sparsely. The genet and the common jackal are fairly abundant. The common ichneumon is rare (The zorilla, another purely African species, is found in the south of Tunisia. The Barbary otter is present in the Majerda and in some of the salt lakes. The Tunisian hedgehog is peculiar to that country and to Algeria. There is a second species (Erinaceus deserti) which is common to all North Africa. In the south of Tunisia, especially about the shats, the elephant-shrew (Macroscelides) is found, an animal of purely African affinities. Tunisia does not appear to possess the Barbary ape, which is found in Algeria and Morocco. Natives of Morocco and of the Sahara oases occasionally bring with them young baboons which they assert are obtained in various Sahara countries to the south and south-west of Tunisia. These baboons appear to belong to the Nubian species, but they cannot be considered indigenous to any part of Tunisia. The porcupine and a large Octodont rodent (Ctenodactylus), the jerboa (two species), the hare, and various other rodents are met within Tunisia. The wild boar inhabits the country, in spite of much persecution at the hands of “chasseurs.” The forested regions shelter the handsome Barbary red deer, which is peculiar to this region and the adjoining districts of Algeria. In the extreme south, in the Sahara desert, the addax antelope is still found. The hartebeest appears now to be quite extinct; so also is the leucoryx, though formerly these two antelopes were found right up to the centre of Tunisia, as was also the ostrich, now entirely absent from the country. In the marshy lake near Mater (north Tunisia), round the mountain island of Jebel Ashkel, is a herd of over 50 buffaloes; these are said to resemble the domestic (Indian) buffalo of the Levant and Italy, and to have their origin in a gift of domestic buffaloes from a former king of Naples to a bey or dey of Tunis. Others again assert the buffaloes to have been there from time immemorial in which case it is very desirable that a specimen should be submitted for examination. [An allied form with gigantic horns is found fossil in Algeria.] They are the private property of the bey, who very properly preserves them. Far down in the Sahara, to the south of Tunisia, the Arabs report the existence of a wild ass, apparently identical with that of Nubia. Roman mosaics shoaw representations not only of this ass, but of the oryx, hartebeest, and perhaps of the addax. The dorcas gazelle is still common in the south of Tunisia; but perhaps the most interesting ruminant is the magnificent udad, or Barbary sheep, which is found in the sterile mountainous regions of south Tunisia. The birds have been abl illustrated by Mr Whitaker in the Ibis magazine of the British Ornithological Union. They are, as a rule, common to the south Mediterranean region. A beautiful little bird almost peculiar to the south of Tunisia and the adjoining regions of Algeria, is a species of bunting (Fringilla), called by the Arabs bu-habibi.[3] This little bird, which is about the size of the linnet, has the head and back silvery blue, and the rest of the plumage chocolate red-brown. It is of the most engaging tameness, being fortunately protected by popular sentiment from injury. It inhabits the Jerid, and extends thence across the Algerian frontier. Among reptiles the Eg ptian cobra seems to be indigenous in the south, where also is found the dreaded horned viper. Some nine or ten other species of snakes are present, together with an abundance of lizards, including the Varanus, and most species of Mediterranean tortoises are represented. The coasts are very rich in fish, and the tunny fisheries of the north are one of the principal sources from which the world's supply of tunny is derived.
Inhabitants.—The natives of Tunisia at the present day belong mainly to two stocks, which may be roughly classified as the Berber (q.v.) and the Arabs (q.v.), about two-thirds being of Berber and the remaining third of Arab descent. But the Berbers of to-day are little more than an incomplete fusion of some four earlier and once independent stocks. These four divisions taken in the order of their assumed priority of invasion or habitation are: (1) the “Neanderthal” type, which is found in the districts of the shats and the adjoining Matmata table-land in the south, and in the “Kroumir” country of the
- ↑ See L. Pervinquiére, L’Étude géologique de la Tunisie centrale (Paris, 1903); G. Rolland, “Carte géologique du littoral nord de la Tunisie,” Bull. soc. géol. de la France (1888), vol. xvii.; H. H. Johnston, “A journey through the Tunisian Sahara,” Geog. Journ. (1898), vol. xi.; Carte géologique de la régence de Tunis, 1:800,000 with notes (Tunis, 1892).
- ↑
List of Plants commonly met with in northern Tunisia:—
Adonis microcarpa, DC. Echium maritimum, Willd. Nigella damascena, L. Anchusa italica, Retz. Fumaria spicala, L. Lycium europaeum, L. Cistus halimifolius, L. Solanum sodomaeum, L. Silene rubella, L. Celsia cretica, L. Oxalis cernua, Thunb. Linaria, sp. allied to L. reflexa, Desf. Geranium tuberosum, L. Linaria triphylla, L, var. Malva sylvestris, L. Orobanche, sp. Tetragonolobus purpureus, Moench. Trixago apula, Stev. Retama retam, Webb. Cynomorium coccineum. Fedia cornucopiae, Gaertn. Plantago albicans, L. Helichrysum Stoechas, DC. Euphorbia serrala, L. Cenlaurea (Seridia), sp. Ophrys fusra, Link. Urospermum Dalechampi, Desf. Orchis papilionacea, L. Scorzonera Alexandrina, Boiss. Romulea bulbocodium, Sebast. and Mauri. Slachys hirla, L. Gladiolus byzantinus, Mill. Stachys, sp. not identified. Omithogalum umbellatum, L. Anagallis collina, Schousb. Allium roseum, L. Convolvulus tricolor, L. Asphodelus fistulosus, L. Solenanthus lanatus, DC. Muscari comosum, Mill., Echium sericeum, Vahl. Arum italicum, Mill. Lagurus ovatus, L. To this list should also be added the common wild tulip, the Italian cyclamen, the common scarlet poppy, the fennel, wild carrot and many varieties of thistle, some of gorgeous colouring.
- ↑ “Father of my friend.”
