36 UNKNOWN MOUNTAIN COUNTEY. oh. ii. 



reports as can be picked up, they constitute a separate 

 group, not continuous with the coast range of Western 

 Algeria. The true relations between the main range of 

 the Lesser Atlas of Algeria and the diverging ranges of 

 the Great Atlas that extend over the region S. and SE. of 

 Fez must remain unknown so long as the latter region 

 remains inaccessible to European travellers. The river 

 Moulouya and its eastern branch, the Oued Za, mark the 

 existence of two considerable valleys, and it is probable 

 that the very sinuous course laid down for both those 

 streams in the French map may be founded on native 

 reports approximately correct ; while it is quite certain 

 that the adjoining mountain ranges as shown on that map 

 differ very widely from the truth. A traveller going from 

 Fez to the mouth of the Oued Moulouya, in a direction 

 slightly north of due east, traverses a broad valley, with 

 the Eiff Mountains on his left, lying between him and 

 the Mediterranean coast, and the northern branches of the 

 Great Atlas on his right. Somewhere near Theza he 

 reaches the watershed between the region that is drained 

 towards the Atlantic through the Oued Sebou and the 

 basin of the Oued Moulouya, but seemingly without hav- 

 ing to make any considerable ascent. He descends to the 

 Moalouya — or rather he would do so if the powerful Halaf 

 tribe, who hold that region, allowed strangers to pass— 

 where that river, after cutting its way through the un- 

 known region between the Great and Lesser Atlas, enters 

 a wide plain, some forty or fifty miles in extent each way. 

 Before reaching the sea, the valley is again narrowed. On 

 one side is the eastern extremity of the Eiff Mountains, 

 and on the other a range of lofty hills that may be con- 

 sidered as spurs of the Lesser Atlas of Algeria. 



Before quitting this dry subject, it is necessary to re- 

 mark that, even as regards the relatively well-known 

 district near Tangier and Tetuan, the best maps are far 

 from complete accuracy. In the French War Office Map 

 — undoubtedly the best map of Marocco — the hill shading 



