Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/149

Rh of in our youthful days, but which none of the party had seen realized till this moment.

Shortly before dawn of day roused by the manly voice of our chief joining with all his troops in his morning prayers; and such was the practice, not only this morning, but ever after on the journey. Be the weather what it would—rain and storm, or fine and calm—long before day were the Musselims prostrate on the earth, chaunting the prescribed chapter of their sacred Korān.

Road to-day in a S. by W. direction 10 miles, over the well-wooded hill Dāhr Acclaou; cork, wild olive, droo, myrtle, heath, broom, palmetto, &c.; masses of rifted sandstone scattered about in wild confusion; soil, gravelly clay. From summit of this hill (500 feet), which is a western spur of the northern branch of the Lesser Atlas, an extensive view of bold mountain scenery in the east and north-east, even to Ape's Hill and the rock of Gibraltar, of Cape Spartel in the north, and of the wanderings of two rivers in the plain beneath, which join round the foot of this hill, and flow into the Atlantic Ocean at three miles west. Forded the Wād Meshra'l Shef, (or stony ford,) and encamped on an elevated plain (400 feet) at a tepid spring of water called Sanȳa d'Ulad S'baida; passed five Arab villages, one coubba, or saint's tomb.

Marched 10 miles S., through a valley about eight miles wide, with many springs; bounded on the west by a hilly tract (500 feet), forming the sea-coast, distant about four miles; on the east by a range of bulky mountains (2500 feet) called Djibbel Habeeb (beloved hill); soil, light clay; little or no cultivation; a few fields of drà, or Guinea corn; passed four Arab villages, three coubbas, or sanctoria; encamped at entrance of Fas y Rechan (valley of myrtle): About two leagues east-north-east of this spot stands a curious rock, called L'Ooted, or pegrock, from description, like those we are accustomed in England to call Druidical.

Course S. 16 miles: first four over a plain of myrtle; then through a narrow valley half a mile broad, winding in a south and south-east direction, hence called the Camel's Neck; the latter part, over a plain of coarse herbage; soil, light clay and sand, with sandstone boulders; and through a wood of fine cork-trees, being the eastern extremity of El Arāish forest. Encamped within two miles of Al Kantra (the bridge); scene of action between the Moors and Portuguese in 1578, where Don Sebastian, who has