MASCARA  ,

chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Oran, Algeria, 6o m . S.E. of Oran . It lies 1800 ft. above the sea, on the southern slope of a range forming part of the Little Atlas Mountains, and occupies two small hills separated by the Wad Tudman, which is crossed by three stone bridges . The walls, upwards of two miles in circuit, and strengthened by bastions and towers, give the place a somewhat imposing appearance . Mascara is a town of the French colonial type, few vestiges of the Moorish period remaining . Among the public buildings are two mosques, in one of which Abd-el-Kader preached the jihad . The town also contains the usual establishments attaching to the seat of a sub-prefect and the centre of a military subdivision . The principal industry is the making of wine, the white wines of Mascara being held in high repute . There is also a considerable trade in grains and oil . A branch railway eight miles long, connects Mascara with the line from the seaport of Arzeu to Ain Sefra . Access is also gained by this line to Oran, Algiers, &c . Pop .

(Igoe') of the town, 18,989; of the

commune, which includes several villages, 22,934; of the arrondissement, comprising eleven communes, 190,154 . Mascara (i.e . " mother of soldiers ") was the capital of a Turkish beylik during the Spanish occupation of Oran from the 16th to the close of the 18th century; but for the most of that period it occupied a site about two miles distant from the present position . On the removal of the bey to Oran its importance rapidly declined ; and it was an insignificant place when in 1832 Abd-el-Kader, who was born in the neighbourhood, chose it as the seat of his power . It was laid in ruins by the French under Marshal Clausel and the duke of Orleans in 1835, the amir retreating south . Being reoccupied by Abd-el-Kader in 1838, Mascara was again captured in 1841 by Marshal Bugeaud and General Lamoriciere .