=North African Possessions.=--French influence is paramount in northern Africa. Algeria and Tunis are both French colonies, and the caravan trade of the Sahara is generally tributary to French trade. The region known as the Tell, a strip between the coast and the Atlas Mountains, is the chief agricultural region, and the products are similar to those on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The ordinary grains are grown for home consumption, but the macaroni wheat crop is manufactured into macaroni paste for export. The fruit-crop, especially the olive, date, and grape, and their products, is exported. Esparto grass, for making paper, was formerly an important export, but the increasing use of wood-pulp for this purpose has had the effect of increasing the grazing area, and therefore the wool-crop. Date-palms grow in great profusion, and the excess forms an important export, going to nearly every part of Europe and the United States. A large part of the crop, however, is consumed by the Arabs. Sumac-tanned goat-skins, for book-binding leather, are also exported. The colonies must import coal. Manufactures are therefore restricted to the preparation of the fruit and food products. Sponges are an important product. Railways provide the necessary transportation for the crops. _Algiers_, the metropolis, is a finely built city and a favorite winter-resort. _Oran_ is the shipping-port for grain and esparto grass. _Biskra_ is the market for dates. The caravan trade of northern Africa is considerable, and the greater part converges at _Tripoli_, to which not far from ten thousand camel-loads of merchandise are brought annually. This trade is carried on mainly by the Arabs, who cover the region from _Timbuctu_ to Lake Chad. They bring ivory, ostrich feathers, gold, goat-skins, and slaves. In return they carry cloth, fire-arms, ammunition, and various commodities to the negro villages of the Sudan. The district is a possession of Turkey. Its chief exports are esparto grass, sponges, and dye-stuffs. =Central Africa.=--Central Africa is divided among the chief European powers. Great Britain and Germany divide the lake-region and the Zanzibar coast. On the Guinea coast the French are an additional factor. The trade of these regions consists of an exchange of tropical products--palm-oil, rubber, ebony, camwood, ivory, and hides--for cloth, tobacco, fire-arms, beads and trinkets, and preserved foods. Most of this trade is carried on by companies holding royal charters. The Kongo State is a semi-official corporation of this character, the King of the Belgians being its chief executive officer. The active administration is carried on by agents of the company. The chief of each tribe or village is required, under penalty, to furnish a certain quota of crude rubber and other products; and between the agent and the Arab slave-driver the natives have little to choose.