TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 633 



ing by the Wad Cazar (river of trees), Mequinez itself was entered. This city- 

 is computed to be 157 miles from Tangier, and is more modern-looking than Fez, 

 with wider streets. It is surrounded with high walls, with towers and huge 

 gates, which swarm with hawks, jays, and pigeons, and having an outer circuit of 

 about five miles. The inhabitants are estimated at 25,000, including many Jews, 

 who, though, as usual, insulted and badly treated, contrive to prosper. 



After sixteen days' residence in Mequinez and various state ceremonials, the 

 party started for Fez by the northern gate, near which are fine perennial springs. 

 Olive plantations of great extent, and an encampment near a small river, the Wad 

 Jedida, 12 miles from the city, conspicuous for the plenty and beauty of its vegeta- 

 tion, were the only points noticed on the thirty-four miles' ride to Fez, which city 

 seemed to be about two and a half miles long, but narrow. It is surrounded by hills, 

 those on the south side being so close as to overlook the place, and is divided by the 

 river into Old and New Fez, a long street, only seven feet wide, running east and 

 west through the whole of the former division. Its population is estimated at 

 50,000. There is an extensive palace, Lallah Amina, at two miles' distance, in 

 the midst of a large garden. After a short stay of three days, the party left by a 

 route to the east of that usually followed, commencing with a broad aloe avenue, 

 and passing a small lake, white with salt after evaporation. A succession of hills 

 extended to Woled Jemah, the soil in the latter part being very thin and chalky, 

 but bearing a profusion of flowering caper bushes. Two hours from Woled Jemah 

 is a ford of the Sebou, 150 yards wide ; and after fording the wide river Wurga, 

 Hadcour was reached, and afterwards Alcassar. Leaving Alcassar, and crossing 

 the Lucos (a corruption of El Kus), the course lay westward through a country 

 studded with cork oak-trees until arriving at El Araish or Larache, picturesquely 

 situated at the mouth of the Lucos, with its treacherous sand-bar. Larache has a 

 population of about 4000, including one Englishman. After crossing the river in 

 a fourteen-oared galley, the route lay over sand-hills and elevations covered with 

 myrtles and other blooming shrubs, until at length the original road was struck at 

 Resana, and finally Tangier was reached. 



On the opposite page is the itinerary, which may be useful to future travellers 

 in this comparatively unknown country. 



3. On the Progress in the Official Report of the " Challenger " Expedition. 

 By Sir C. Wtville Thomson, LL.D., F.B.8., Sfc. 



4. On the Characteristic Features of Alaska, as developed by the JJ. S. Survey. 



By W. H. Dall, U.S.C.S. 



The territory is divided, topographically, botanically, ethnologically, and in a 

 meteorological sense, into three regions. These regions are not, however, abso- 

 lutely coincident under the respective heads. The topographical regions are the 

 south-eastern or Sitkan region, remarkable for its rugged and elevated mountains 

 and numerous islands with bold shores ; the Aleutian, comprising the Aleutian 

 Islands and the peninsula of Aliaska, also partly mountainous, but of a different 

 character ; and lastly, the Yukon region, including the greater part of the area of 

 the territory and composed of the lowlands north of the Alaskan mountains and 

 the Arctic tundri, with, for the most part, shallow water along then* coasts. The 

 botanical <ind meteorological regions are mainly identical with the preceding, but 

 not absolutely so. The Sitkan region is characterised by dense forests of conifers 

 and many plants peculiar to the western slope of the continent; the Aleutian 

 region by an absence of trees, the great development of grasses and herbage, 

 numerous Ericace<r, and a more Arctic physiognomy. The Yukon region is marked 

 by the presence of birch, spruce, willow, and poplar, often forming large forests, of 

 a different character from those of Sitka, and, for the rest, by a chiefly Arctic flora. 

 Meteorologically, the Sitkan (as well as the British Columbian coast) is marked 



