We rose betimes next morning, finding fresh enjoyment in each breath that we drew of the delicious air, and after breakfast set out for a walk southward along the coast. For the first two or three miles the rocky ground sloped downward towards our right, and finally fell steeply to the beach. It was apparent that the season was not quite advanced enough to enjoy the full beauty of the flora, but we found, besides the Drosophyllum already mentioned, many interesting forms. Orchids were not so abundant as they usually are at this season in the warmer part of the Mediterranean region. Platanthera diphylla, growing in shady spots, was the only uncommon species.
An indentation of the coast marks the spot where a slender stream descends to the sea through a stretch of white sand; and beyond this the rocky coast rises but slightly above the sea level. Our steps were directed towards the so-called Cave of Hercules. This was originally a mere hollow in the face of the sea cliff; but from a remote period of antiquity it has been quarried for the purpose of extracting the hand-mills universally used in this part of Marocco. These, which are quite the same as the Scotch querns, are cut out in the rudest way by hammer and chisel, leaving the surface of the rock marked by a series of circular indentations about eighteen inches in diameter. In this way the original dimensions of the cave have been greatly enlarged, and, as it is still worked for the same purpose, the process is sure to be continued. In connection with the question raised of late years as to change of relative level of land and sea within the historic period, we observed some very ancient markings that showed the works to have been carried somewhat below the present level of high tide; but we could trace none that appeared to reach so low as that of the ebb tide.
So far as the evidence at this point goes, it seems to prove a slight amount of submergence during the period for which the rock has here been quarried. This period may probably be reckoned at 2,000 years, and possibly much exceeds that limit. Taken in connection with still existing remains in Greece, Asia Minor, the Phœnician coast of Syria, and Egypt, it tends to show that the changes in the general level of the Mediterranean coasts, indicated by many geologists, must have proceeded very slowly during the historic period, and that the more considerable oscillations, that have undoubtedly occurred near Naples and on the east coast of Sicily, have been mainly due to the local influence of volcanic action.
The soil near the cave was much mixed with sand carried by the wind, and the plants seen were chiefly widely diffused species that find tolerably uniform conditions of life on the sandy shores of the west coast of Europe. The rocks near the cave produce samphire and the sea fern (Asplenium marinum), just as they do in Cornwall; while Diotis maritima and Lotus Salzmanni, a local variety of the widely spread Lotus creticus of Linnæus, were frequent on the sands. The chief ornament was Statice sinuata, whose delicate azure flowers were already in blossom, long before most of the species of that late-flowering genus.
Our course now lay inland; but, instead of following the direct way back to Tangier, we were led by a false report (our first experience of blundering interpretation of English by the help of Moorish Arabic) to bear to the left, and recross the Djebel Kebir, so as to take Sir J. D. Hay’s villa of Ravensrock on our way back to the town. Near the track we passed close to a native village, or douar, the first which we had seen. When we had heard that the native population is broadly distinguished into two classes by the fact that some retain their original nomadic habits so far as to live permanently in tents, moving from one spot to another during the course of the year, while the others live in houses, and have become rooted to the soil, it never occurred to us that there could be any difficulty in distinguishing between one class and the other with the help of such obvious characteristic marks. But we soon found that the difference is but slight, and not very apparent. The black camel’s hair tent is often, both in seeming and in fact, a more durable dwelling than the miserable huts, composed chiefly of slender branches to which the dried leaves still adhere, covered sometimes with brown straw, and oftener with some tattered fragments of cloth, the remains of worn-out garments. Only the mountain tribes, the descendants of the ancient Bereber stock, whose southern descendants we were to become acquainted with in the valleys of the Great Atlas, have preserved the familiar use of stone masonry in this part of Africa. Laden with plants, and with appetites sharpened by our climb over the hill, we returned to our comfortable quarters at the Victoria Hotel. We did not pass over the very highest point of the Djebel Kebir; but an observation taken some sixty or eighty feet lower indicated an elevation of about 800 feet above the sea level.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]This episode forms the subject of Calderon’s noble play—El Prencipe Costante.
[2]A copy of this view is given in the frontispiece.
[3]Wentzel Hollar (or Hollard), a native of Prague, was sent to Tangier in 1669 by the king to take views of the town and its fortifications, which he afterwards engraved. Being one of the most distinguished engravers of the time, he settled in England, and executed some 2,400 prints, chiefly etchings, which are remarkable for their spirit, freedom, lightness, and finish. Hollar was one of the most conscientious of men; he worked for the booksellers at the rate of 4d. an hour, and always with an hour-glass on his table, which he invariably laid on its side, to prevent the sand from running, when not actually at work with his pencil or graving tool, and even when conversing on his business with his employers. He is said to have died in great poverty, with an execution in his house and a prison in prospect.