JOUENAL 



OP A 



TOUB IN MAEOCCO 



CHAPTEE I. 



Voyage to Gibraltar — View of Tangier — Interior of the town — Portu- 

 guese and English occupation — Hospitable reception by Sir John 

 Drummond Hay — Ravensrock — Government of Marocco — Climate of 

 North Marocco — Exceptional season — The Djebel Kebir and its 

 vegetation — Cistus and Heath region — Cape Spartel — Night at the 

 Lighthouse — Cave of Hercules — Arab village — Return to Tangier. 



On Saturday, April 1, 1871, oxir party, consisting of Sir 

 Joseph (then Dr.) Hooker, Mr. Maw, and Mr. Ball, with a 

 young gardener, named Crump, from the Royal Gardens 

 at Kew, left Southampton for Gibraltar, in the Peninsular 

 and Oriental Company's Steamship Massilia. 



Even for the ordinary tourist it is a pleasant thing to 

 turn his face towards the South in the early part of the 

 year, and to feel that he is about to exchange six or eight 

 weeks of bitter easterly winds for the bright skies and 

 soft breezes of the Mediterranean region. Still more does 

 the botanist rejoice to quit the poverty of our slowly un- 

 folding spring flora for the wealth of varied vegetation that 

 is spread aroimd the shores of the Inland Sea. But for us, 

 the occasion was one of deeper and more special interest. 

 We were starting, under unusually favourable conditions, 

 to explore a country which, though close to Europe, is 

 among the least known regions of the earth. Although 

 the obstacles we were sure to encounter and the limited time 

 at our disposal, might not allow us to accomplish much, 



*4" B 



