2 OUR PARTY. CH. 1. 



we felt a confident hope that we should learn something of 

 a great mountain chain all but absolutely unknown to 

 geographers, and be able to fill up some missing pages in 

 the records of our favourite science. The thrill of pleasur- 

 able anticipation at the prospect of setting foot within the 

 boundaries of terra incognita was heightened by the fact 

 that for each of us this land of Marocco had long been the 

 object of especial interest and curiosity. 



From an early period Hooker had conceived the de- 

 sire to explore the range of the Great Atlas, to become 

 acquainted with its vegetation, and to ascertain whether 

 this supplies connecting links between that of the Medi- 

 terranean region and the peculiar flora of the Canary 

 Islands. This desire was increased during a journey in 

 Syria, in 1860, made in company with Admiral Washing- 

 ton, the late Hydrographer of the Navy, one of the very 

 few Europeans who had reached the flanks of the Grreat 

 Atlas chain, when, as a young naval officer, he accompanied 

 the late Sir John Drummond Hay on his mission to the 

 city of Marocco in 1829. 



Maw had already made collections of living plants 

 in the neighbourhood of Tangier, and had also visited 

 Tetuan, where he had pushed his excursions farther than 

 any but one preceding traveller. 



Ball had landed at Tetuan in 1851 with the hope of 

 attaining some of the higher summits of the neighbouring 

 Eiff Mountains ; but the disturbed state of the country 

 in that year made it impossible to advance beyond the 

 immediate outskirts of the city. 



From the moment when it seemed likely that the per- 

 mission to visit the Great Atlas sought for by Hooker, 

 through the intervention of our Foreign Office, would be 

 accorded by the Sultan of Marocco, no time was lost in 

 making the requisite preparations. Although everything 

 was done within about a fortnight, our equipment was 

 tolerably complete ; and when, after the first excitement 

 of departure had subsided, we thought it over on board 



