TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 631 



colours, water-colours, pencil drawings, and photographs were taken, besides twenty- 

 five tons of rock-specimens. The explorers brought back to Cairo a small ethno- 

 logical collection of stoue implements, rude and worked ; coins of ancient 

 Midian, mixed with Roman and Kufic ; fragments of copper and bronze, glass and 

 pottery; Nabathsean inscriptions and Arab tribe marks; skulls, spirit specimens 

 of zoology, shells from the shores of the Red Sea, and a /tortus siccus. 



Captain Burton ended his paper by noticing that the terms of the Anglo-Turkish 

 Convention have placed Great Britain, with reference to Arabia, nearly in the 

 same position as that occupied by Rome after the days of Augustus. He found the 

 land wasted and spoiled, far less civilised than it was in the nineteenth century 

 B.C. But he cherishes the conviction that Midian is fated to see better days, and 

 that by the development of her mineral wealth, under the fostering care of" Euro- 

 pean, and especially English companies, this forgotten California, now like Algeria 

 before 1830, will presently rival the rich and fruitful province of Algiers in 1878. 



2. On a Journey to Fez and Mequinez. By A. Leared, M.D., F.B.G.S., 



M.B.I.A. 



Dr. Leared, who, in May, 1877, accompanied the Portuguese Embassy to the 

 Sultan of Morocco, in addition to many interesting personal and historical details, 

 gives the following particulars of the country on the route followed from Tangier. 

 For some three and a half hours' ride, the land near the city is well cultivated, the 

 first halt being under a range of hills named Kaa-el-Urmil, near the river M'har. 

 After advancing close to the sea and crossing a plain, a river fifty yards wide was 

 forded, and the douar of Garbia reached, two hours from which is a thick grove of 

 wild olive-trees, abounding in nightingales. A succession of hill and plain, but 

 little cultivated, then followed, and Klatta de Raissana was reached, after fording 

 another considerable river. Next day, a great alluvial plain was traversed, through 

 which runs the small river M'Hassen, the distance from which to Alcassar-el- . 

 Kebir (historically associated with the destruction of Don Sebastian and his army 

 by the Moors in 1578) is some ten miles of level, little cultivated land, becoming 

 an arid plain at two miles from the town. Dr. Leared estimates the inhabitants as 

 between 5000 and 6000, considering Rohlfs's number of 30,000 as much exa»ce- 

 rated. Beyond Alcassar, two miles of wide and paved footpath were followed, 

 ending at a ford across the Lucos, here about eighty yards broad. Still further on 

 the land was better cultivated, and wheat was being cut (May 25th). The encamp- 

 ment was in the midst of an immense tract, covered with hay going to waste. After 

 passing the bounds of the province of Larache, the river Guarot was crossed by a 

 ford about 50 yards wide, and a rolling prairie traversed, grass and flower-covered, 

 but with no tree or shrub. Ten miles further on, the douar or village of the go- 

 vernor of the Habassie tribe was reached; the next journey being throuo-han 

 immense level tract, with a sea-like horizon to the west. Much of this was culti- 

 vated with wheat and barley, with scattered douars and cattle ; but the greater 

 part was a fertile waste.- The Sebou, one of the chief rivers of Morocco, here 

 120 yards wide and of considerable depth, was then passed in flat-bottomed boats 

 and by swimming. A flat fertile country followed, with splendid wheat-crops ; 

 great tracts of a tall white-flowering wild umbelliferous plant were observed ; and 

 a camp was made, close to the village of Bokhara, on the bank of the river Irrdrum, 

 a tributary of the Sebou, on a dead level plain, having to the south a fine aniphi- 

 theatre-like range of distant hills. Pour miles from this, after cresting the com- 

 mencement of a hilly country, and making a short descent, a halt was made at 

 Zacouta, on flat parched soil, deeply fissured by the summer heat, and abounding 

 with the lesser bustard, a bird not known near the coast. Leaving Zacouta, the 

 road lay through a succession of hills, on the slopes of which was much standing 

 corn ; and after a short journey, the party encamped under the mountain of Zar° 

 houn, on the south side of which, less than a mile distant, is the town and sanc- 

 tuary of Muley Edris-el-Keber. To the right, across a stream with deep banks, 

 and on higher ground, stand the ruins called Cassar Pharaon (Pharaoh's Castle), 



