550 SCIENTIFIC RECOED FOR 1885. 



Morocco during- 1883 and 1884. Having renounced his future prospects 

 in the military career, he disguised himself in the costume of a Jew, in 

 spite of the antipathy of the natives to persons of that religion. This 

 particular disguise enabled him to conceal his barometer and sextant 

 and make his observations under the long veil with which the Jew 

 covers himself during prayer. Deprived of all comforts, without 

 servants, without an animal upon which to ride, without tent or 

 bed, and almost without baggage, he travelled and worked during 

 eleven months among these people who had more than once before 

 unmasked similar attemj)ts and inflicted upon the unfortunate in- 

 dividual the punishment which the crime appeared to them to de- 

 serve, viz, death. To the 7,G00 miles of road marked out with 

 but few determinations of latitude and still fewer points of longi- 

 tude, which cartographers had at their disposal in 1883, M. de Fou- 

 cauid added 1,400 miles of new ground besides revising and perfecting 

 in the course of his journey the work of his predecessors. His travels 

 occupied from the 20th of June, 1883, to the 23d of May, 1884. He 

 traversed the great Atlas range at several new points, of which he had 

 determined the altitude, besides having journeyed for 185 miles along 

 the base of the range, rectifying and simplifying by fresh information 

 the orography of the country. Thanks to him, we now know that from 

 31 miles on the north and 103 miles on the south this commanding- 

 range is flanked by parallel lines of elevation, which, as far as our maps 

 were concerned, is quite a revelation. We learn from M. de Foucauld 

 that there is in the north a chain of mountains about 185 miles in length, 

 which bears the names of Djebel-Ait-Seri and Djebel-Beni-Uaghain. In 

 the south there is, first of aU, the Little Atlas (the Anti- Atlas on the 

 map of Lenz), and still farther south the strange outline of the Djebel- 

 Bani range, the name of which we know fr«m the Kabbi Mardoch^e, 

 and which Lenz crossed, but without identifying it. This journey, ex- 

 tending over five days to the south of Meknas, was accomplished by M. 

 de Foucauld in the midst of warlike peoples and marauding tribes. 

 In the month of December, 1883, the traveller touched the Uadi Dhra'a 

 to the south of Tattas. " This river," he says, '' the bed of which is 

 nearly 24 miles in breadth, is absolutely dry, except during the melting 

 of the snow and the seasons of continuous rain." Later on he again 

 saw the river farther to the northeast, in the district of Mezquita, 

 " where this same river, broad and with uninterrupted stream, flows 

 through plantations of date palms." The itinerary of M. de Foucauld 

 places that part of the course of the Uadi Dhra'a, as indicated on Dr. 

 Eohlfs map, quite one degree farther west. This important correc- 

 tion should be utilized to revise the itinerary of the German traveller. 

 Finally, the accurate information obtained literally revolutionizes our 

 previous geographical and political knowledge of Morocco. 



The death of King Mtesa is confirmed, but it is believed that his son 



