It is clear that in this continual flow of cool water from the north-west we have a cause which cannot fail to produce its effect on the climate of the adjoining coasts. It would be a matter of interest to ascertain how far the direction and velocity of the ocean currents are modified by the prevailing winds, which here set in nearly opposite directions in winter and in summer; but an answer to such an inquiry will require much time, and the accumulation of a large number of careful observations.

We completed our cargo by taking on board at Casa Blanca considerable quantities of maize, beans, oil, goat-skins and wool; and our captain resolved not to touch at Rabat, but to run direct to Tangier. Eighteen hours under steam carried us past Cape Spartel, and in the afternoon of June 12 we lay off Tangier.

Hooker’s numerous and pressing engagements in England made him resolve to forego the pleasure of revisiting the neighbourhood of Tangier, and comparing the summer vegetation with that which we had admired two months before; he therefore determined to reach Gibraltar as soon as possible, with the hope of there catching the Peninsular and Oriental Mail Steamer for England. Ball could not deny himself the opportunity for a full day’s botanising on ground so attractive, and therefore removed his baggage ashore; while Hooker returned on board the Lady Havelock, which was to cross the Strait during the night.

On arriving at the Victoria Hotel, we learned that Sir J. D. Hay had taken up his residence at his charming villa on the Djebel Kebir, but we found awaiting us a kind note enclosing a welcome packet of letters from England. After a hasty dinner at the hotel, the time for parting came, and Hooker got out through the sea gate just before it was closed for the night. The mail steamer had left Gibraltar for England on the same day that we returned to Tangier; but on the following morning Hooker found the steamship Burmah, bound from Bombay to London, about to depart from Gibraltar, and after a rather slow voyage he reached the Thames on the morning of June 21.

Ball enjoyed a capital day’s plant-hunting at Tangier. The morning was given to the sandy tract near the shore and the course of the stream that passes by the east side of the town. This now made a much more brilliant show than it had done in the month of April. Many fine Umbelliferæ and Labiatæ, then barely in leaf, were now in full flower and fruit. Of these the queen was Salvia bicolor, a magnificent species, usually four or five feet, but sometimes eight or even ten feet high, much branched, with leaves of varied form from twelve to eighteen inches long, and great interrupted spikes of large blue and white flowers.

The slopes of the Djebel Kebir, which had been so brilliant in the spring, had now lost their splendour. The gum cistus, the golden Genista and Cytisus, the heaths, and many other ornamental species had long since shed their petals, and had been succeeded by new comers, most of them with comparatively inconspicuous flowers. For the botanist, however, the fruit is often more important than the flower, and the afternoon was not long enough to collect all the interesting species that presented themselves.

On June 14 Ball crossed the Strait from Tangier to Gibraltar in the ordinary small steamer. While awaiting conveyance to England he was detained three days, which were made short and agreeable by the hospitality of Sir W. Fenwick Williams, then governor of the fortress, and returned to England by a steamer bound from Calcutta to London, viâ the Suez Canal.

Our large collections reached England by the Lady Havelock, which arrived only about the end of June, and these, as well as the cases containing sundry purchases made in Marocco, were all in good condition.[8]

FOOTNOTES:

[1]See [Appendix D.]