Rimmel, Eugene: Recollections of the Paris exhibition of 1867 (London, 1868)

THE PARIS EXHIBITION. I^I

CHAPTER XL

ALGERIA.

Resuming our rambles in the so-called Machinery Gallery,
we meet with a number of trophies surmounted by palm trees
waving aloft their graceful branches. We are 'in Algeria.

To the marvels of mechanism succeed the simple products
of a primitive people. This is exactly what we had foreseen
when we spoke of the impractibility of zones.

The Algerian Exhibition however is extremely interesting,
thanks to the pains taken by Mr. Teston, the eminent director
of the Algerian Museum, in classifying it. It consists of two
distinct parts, the produce of the soil, which is of great pro-
spective importance, and native manufactures whose sole merit
is their originality.

Algeria is rich in minerals, but although many concessions
have been made, a few only are in a working state, for want
of funds or a sufficient result.

Among the mines in full operation we may quote that of
Mokta-el-Hadid, near Bone, which exhibits a block of magne-
tic iron weighing seven tons, and whose annual yield is about
two hundred thousand tons ; that of Gar-Rouban, Province
of Oran, which annually produces one thousand eight hundred
tons of argentiferous lead, and that of Oued-Merdja which
gives excellent copper.

i 2