Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/174

150 a boulder of granite or rather of gneiss in the valley below, and veins of foliated quartz in the schistose hills; besides, the tendency of the formation is to table-land, ridges, and rounded summits, not to sharp or Alpine peaks; neither did we on our route through the country, see any trace of volcanic agency, nor is there anything in the outline of Atlas indicating the former existence of a crater. Returned to our camp at night.

On a hill five hundred feet above our camp are ruins of a city, now called Tassremoot, apparently of great extent; walls of unhewn limestone and mortar, baths, vaults, &c. All the information we could gain from the natives was, that it was formerly a Christian or Roman city, and tradition attaches to it the same tale as that of the taking of Troy, which, substituting mules laden with treasure, for the wooden horse, was distinctly related to us by a Shellāh huntsman, who, pointing to a certain spot in the wall, said, 'And there stood Bāb el 'Ghraddār,' or 'traitor's gate,' which name it bears to this day!

After three nights spent in the Atlas, at dawn of the following day began to descend on our return to the plain; passed a basin formed by hills about five hundred feet in height, presenting a remarkable appearance; strata of lime running north-east and south-west, dip about 70° to south-east, and which, following the undulation of the hills, gave to the north-west slope the resemblance of a series of crescents rising one above another. Again reach the regions of palm, oleanders, rose-trees, &c.; on gaining the plain turn east-north-cast, along the foot of a range of hills called the

Arina range, which presents a striking feature even as seen from Marocco; basis of lime; strata east and west, dip 20° to the south-east; its north-western face precipitous, five hundred feet high, and deeply channelled with water-courses, and having dark red clay, possibly metallic, between the strata of lime. Road turns north across the plain; soil light clay; ground covered with cornelians, agates, &c.; traversing numerous streamlets gushing from all the vallies of the Atlas; their margins rife with vegeta- tion; cross the fiver Tensift, and lose sight 0f the tall tower of the mosque of El Kŏŏtabīa, which, towering as a light-house far above the level line of verdure formed by the tops of the palm-trees around Marocco, had hitherto been our beacon across the plain. Encamped close under the eastern extremity of the schistose range of hills, forming the northern limit of the plains and at the source of the river Tensift. The schistose hilts, varying from