Most visitors seem to be under the impression that Algeria is mainly peopled by Arabs, whereas, as a matter of fact, they form only a small minority of the inhabitants, seventy-five per cent of whom are Berbers, descendants of that rugged warlike race who had lived in North Africa for untold centuries before the Arabs came. As to the remainder of the population, the so-called Moors, generally of mixed blood, inhabit the towns and villages along the sea-coast. Negroes, originally brought from the south and sold as slaves, are now found chiefly in the larger cities, where they are employed as laborers and domestic servants. The Kabyles of the eastern highlands, like the Touareg of the Sahara, are both branches of the old Berber stock. The Turks, though for a considerable period the dominant race, were never very numerous in Algeria, and most of them were repatriated by the French after the conquest. The Jews, of whom there are more than seventy thousand, are in the main descended from those who were expelled from Cyrenaica in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, who fled from the Spanish persecutions, or who were banished from Italy in 1342. The purely “African” Jew is now found only in the oases of the M’zab. Mohammedanism is the nominal religion of all the native races save, of course, the Jews, but the faith of the Prophet is strictly observed only by the Arabs. Ever since the days when what is now Algeria was regarded as the granary of Rome it has been noted for the fertility of its soil, so that it is not surprising that more than two thirds of its inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits. It should be understood, however, that the greater part of the country is of limited value for agricultural purposes, the really profitable farming regions being confined to a comparatively small area of highly fertile plains and valleys in the neighborhood of the coast, which is cultivated scientifically, mainly by Europeans, and yields good returns in grain-fields and vineyards. The mountainous northern portion is on the whole better adapted to grazing and forestry than to agriculture, particularly as, in spite of the numerous excellent roads built by the state, large areas of it are still without adequate means of communication and very difficult of access. Most of the native inhabitants are, moreover, miserably poor, eking out a scanty existence by cultivating small olive-groves and fields of barley or raising herds of sheep and goats. Under French rule, however, the productiveness of the country has been enormously increased by the sinking of artesian wells in districts which required only water to make them fertile, and by the introduction of scientific methods and modern machinery, though the employment of these is largely confined to European settlers, the natives regarding such innovations with a mixture of curiosity, skepticism, and sullen apathy.