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After a rather late breakfast, the hour fixed for the departure of our travelling companion having arrived, we with much regret bade adieu to Maw, whose engagements in England hastened his return. He carried with him a considerable collection of living plants which, owing to his skill and experience in managing this difficult process, arrived in excellent condition, and have since thriven in his garden in Shropshire. The soldiers of our escort who accompanied him to Mogador, bore orders to the local authorities which ensured their respect and attention, and, as we afterwards learned, his journey was in every way successful.

Mid-day had passed before we started from Sektana, the morning hours having been employed in collecting and laying in paper a tolerably large mass of specimens. Our course lay over the plateau, whose undulations gradually subsided towards the Oued Nfys. At a distance of some seven miles from our camp we reached the brow of a range of low broken cliffs of white limestone, facing westward towards the broad valley of that stream. They are at a considerable distance from the present bed, but were doubtless formed by erosion at a distant period when the level was much higher than it now is. Among other plants, a variety of the wild caper (described as Capparis ægyptia by Lamarck) was here common, and was afterwards often seen in similar stations as we travelled westward. The flowers-buds are eaten raw by the natives, who call them Pan.

Below us, on the fertile tract extending for three or four miles from the foot of the cliffs towards the Oued Nfys, stood the village of Gurgouri, overlooked by two kasbahs belonging to the Governor of the district which we had now entered, also called Gurgouri. The older fortress-like building, standing on a projecting rock, was apparently uninhabited, and the Kaïd dwelt in a less imposing structure close to the village.

Our present design was to approach the high summits of the Atlas that we had viewed in the morning through one of the lateral valleys of the Oued Nfys, whence, as it appeared, the ascent might be effected without serious difficulty. The leaders of our escort had ridden on before to announce our arrival, and, after a short halt, we approached the village through a belt of gardens and olive groves. No Governor appeared to meet us, but only a messenger with some lame excuse for his non-appearance. It would seem that our dissatisfaction at this want of attention was speedily reported, and that the Kaïd’s second thoughts were different from his first, for he presently appeared just at the entrance to his kasbah. He was a tall, handsome man, courteous, but no way cordial in his greeting. He invited us to stop at this place, offering at the same time a suitable mona. It was necessary, however, to bring the question as to our further progress to a speedy decision; and when the proposal to ascend the neighbouring mountains was met by a positive refusal, and an intimation that such an expedition might be effected from Amsmiz, the adjoining district to the W. of the Oued Nfys, Hooker at once decided to continue our journey, and to refuse the proffered entertainment.

It appeared that our refusal was felt by the Kaïd as a slight; so, by way of offering an irresistible attraction, a cow was led out and slaughtered on the spot, close to the kasbah. Fresh beef is a delicacy rarely found in Marocco; but even this failed to move us. Our greedy soldiers were furious at being baulked of the opportunity for feasting and idling, which they evidently considered the main object of their mission, and our departure from Gurgouri was accompanied by the surly faces and muttered grumblings of our escort.

It was only on the following day that, owing to the continuing feud between the two men, we learned, through our Mogador captain, that Kaïd el Hasbi had here once more been scheming to frustrate the objects of our journey. In announcing our arrival, he at once prejudiced the Governor of Gurgouri against the intrusive Christians, who had come to visit his district, and directly advised him not to let us enter the mountain valleys. It is likely that this conduct was as much prompted by a keen recollection of the discomfort of his recent five days’ stay in the Aït Mesan valley, and the poorer fare there available, as by mere fanatic dislike to Christians and strangers; but we all know how readily fanaticism allies itself with the baser passions of human nature, and neither were wanting in Kaïd el Hasbi. In any case, it was only natural that a local Governor should take his cue from the man who seemed to be the personal representative of the authorities in Marocco.

If our soldiers were disappointed at missing a feast, we were in no better humour at being foiled in what appeared a hopeful project. We silently rode for nearly an hour amidst well-cultivated fields and gardens before we finally reached the banks of the Oued Nfys, at a village called Nurzam. The channel was some 300 yards in width, cut out from the soft limestone strata that rose on either side in steep banks about thirty feet high; while, in spite of the recent rains, the stream was only about twenty yards in width, and everywhere shallow. The day was so far advanced that we could not linger here—a fact the more to be regretted as we found, on the dry gravelly bed of the stream, several plants not before seen during our journey. Among these were Salvia ægyptiaca, and a curious Antirrhinum, nearly allied to, but different from, the Algerian A. ramosissimum.

On the west side of the Oued Nfys, the ground rises gradually, but not nearly to so high a level as the plateau of Sektana. The underlying rock throughout the space between this and the next valley descending from the Atlas appears to be covered with a thick red earthy deposit, sometimes of the consistence of clay, sometimes of a more friable character, doubtless formed at the expense of the portion of the Atlas at the head of the valley of the Oued Nfys.

No indications of glacial action were observed in this region, or in the Amsmiz valley which we were about to visit. On the way to Amsmiz we crossed a ravine fully 200 feet in depth, cut by a streamlet through the clay beds, without reaching the underlying rock. The country was in great part under tillage, and, although we passed no villages, must maintain a considerable population. A few interesting plants were seen; but time was pressing, and we could not afford to halt. The sun set, casting a brilliant red glow over the heaving plain that lingered for a short space longer on the flanks of the mountains which here rise more abruptly than in the district near Marocco. Our course was directed towards the narrow opening of a valley, cleft through the outer range of the Atlas, which we had already descried from a distance; and, after a gradual descent, we arrived, about 8.15 P.M., some time after dark, at Amsmiz.[1]