1 920. J of the Maroccan "Middle-Atlas^ 271 



lark. Here, too, ^ve meet for the first time the Black-cliat 

 and Tawny-pipit, and stray examples of iSeebohm's Wheatear, 

 while overhead the Golden Eagle and Lannnergeiei' sailing 

 ont from the mountains in qnest of food, tell of the riches 

 beyond. 



Overhanging Azron and its " Mamelons,'^ the Northern 

 Slope of the Lesser-Atlas with its abrupt 2000 feet incline, 

 median " Terrace,^' and occasional crown of precipitous crag, 

 would be a feature sutiiciently striking to the south-bound 

 traveller, even were it bare or clad onlj with the ])oor 

 brushwood recently passed by on the Plateau of El-Ilajeb : 

 but, clothed as it is for its upper two-thirds and crested w'ith 

 dense forest, he cannot fail to observe that he is about to enter 

 a type of "country" quite different from anything between 

 it and the Atlantic, or for many miles to the northward. 



Botanically, the Forest is essentiall}' "cool temperate.^' 

 Ilex (Qiierciis ilex) forn)sthe matrix of the tree-slope, good 

 40-70-foot trees up io 5700 feet, above which altitude they 

 d-vindle in size and nuuiber, and soon peter out altogether. 



Cedars {Cedtuis aflcmticus) commence to intersperse them- 

 selves at about r)200 feet (once on a time certainly lower), at 

 5600 feet are at their zenith of size and beauty, magnificent 

 trees of 120 feet and more ; thence to the crests they increase 

 in number but lose somewhat in stature, until the species 

 remains the sole representative of tree-growth, and spreads 

 on, to the Plateau, but there only to crown the "volcanic 

 kopjes" or line the walls of the larger "craters," for up 

 there the Cedar seems to abhor a level surface. 



As in Europe and Asia, the forests of Marocco have suffered 

 much in the past from tlie unfettered toll of the aborioines : 

 it is grievous here, in the heart of the Cedar zone, to see 

 the number of dead monarchs standing and lying in wasteful 

 decay, their gaunt barkless Irunks and stag-horns the whiter 

 for the l)lack scars of fires lighted at the base in hopes that, 

 perhaps, one in three would thereby be brought to a fall. 

 However, the forests are now being judiciously exploited 

 and preserved by the French administration, and much of 

 the fallen timber that is not too rotten is beina- utilized. 



