Neither on this occasion nor on our return did we see any trace of the ruins of Azemour or of the great river Oum-er-bia. This is apparently the chief stream of Marocco. It drains the northern declivity of the chain of the Great Atlas for a distance of 150 miles, and nearly the entire of the extensive mountainous region, a still unknown network of high ridges and deep valleys, that covers nearly half the space between the main chain and the Atlantic seaboard. Like all the other rivers of this country the volume of water varies to an extent unknown in Europe. In dry seasons, when a large part of the waters that descend from the mountains is diverted into irrigation channels, and never reaches the sea, the main stream runs over a shallow bed fordable in many places; but after heavy rains the swollen waters have such a rapid current that we were told of travellers being detained a week or ten days waiting for the opportunity of crossing it. Lieut., afterwards Admiral, Washington[3] estimated the breadth of the river where he crossed it, near Azemour, at 150 yards, and found it much the same at about eighty miles from the sea on the return journey from Marocco to the coast.

Mazagan, though a small and poor-looking place, bears many traces of its European origin, as we remarked when we landed here on our return voyage from Mogador. It was built by the Portuguese in 1566, and held in spite of frequent assaults by the Moors for more than two hundred years, having been finally surrendered in 1770.

J. B. delt.

SAFFI

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We left the roads at 9 A.M. on the 25th, and were glad to see for the first time the land rising in bold cliffs. The headland seen a few miles south-west of Mazagan is Cape Blanco; but this projects little from the general outline of the coast, which shows a tolerably uniform direction, rising gradually towards the south-west, till we reach Cape Cantin, the chief headland of this part of the Atlantic seaboard. The summit is apparently about three hundred feet above the sea, and the calcareous strata nearly horizontal. Here the coast line, which from Cape Blanco had kept the direction from north-east by east to south-west by west, turns abruptly to the south. The cliffs recede a little at first and form a slight curve, then rising to a second headland some two hundred feet higher than Cape Cantin. Beyond this the shore again recedes, and the land subsides, where a slender stream has cut its way through the plateau inland, and affords space for the little seaport town of Saffi, or Asfi of the Moors. The coast line again rises on the south side of Saffi, forming a steep escarpment some three or four hundred feet in height, called the Jews’ Rock, about four miles from the town.

Saffi is by far the most picturesque spot on the west coast of Marocco. The extensive fortifications of the Portuguese, high walls and square towers, spreading along the shore and up the broken declivity on which the town is built, with several steep islets, whose rocks have been gnawed into uncouth shapes by the Atlantic waves, produce, as seen from the sea, a striking effect. Though fully exposed to the west, this port is better protected from the north-east winds than any other on the coast, except Mogador. Behind it lies the fertile province of Abda, famed for its excellent breed of horses, and it is the nearest port to the city of Marocco—about one hundred miles distant—but the want of secure anchorage for shipping neutralises these natural advantages.

Our stay on this occasion was short, and soon after dark we were again in motion. We spent pleasantly enough our last evening on board the Vérité. Though he took little pains to conceal his strong prejudices against the English nation, our captain was thoroughly good-natured and obliging towards the individual Englishmen with whom he was associated. No doubt our scientific pursuits recommended us to his good offices, for the slight smattering of scientific knowledge acquired by half-educated persons in most Continental countries has the effect of awakening some interest in such pursuits. It may, indeed, be doubted whether, at least in France, the teaching of physical science goes far enough to convey any accurate knowledge, even of an elementary kind; but, at all events, the national temperament leads Frenchmen to expose their deficiencies more than other people readily do. An Englishman who knows that he is not well grounded in a subject holds his tongue, or if pressed by questions will probably exaggerate the extent of his own ignorance, where a Frenchman will gaily lay down the law and span over the gaps in his knowledge by startling bridges of conjecture. Our worthy skipper amused us not a little when, in conversation on the climate of this coast, reference being made to the rainless zone of the Peruvian coast, he explained that in that country the moisture of the air is absorbed by the gases that accompany earthquakes, thus accounting to his own satisfaction for the meteorological phenomenon. But the full vehemence of his nature was reserved for matters of much more immediate interest. He had left Marseilles after the Communist rising in that city had been suppressed, but while the miserable tragic farce that was to end in the horrors of May, 1871, was being enacted in Paris. He could not allude to the subject without a degree of fury that to us seemed utterly unreasonable. But it is easy for people at a distance to treat such matters with calmness, and there were not many Englishmen on the spot who at the time were able to share the noble calmness of Lord Canning during the Indian Mutiny.

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