MAZAGAN. 71 



rigging, even the neighbourhood of the boiler was invaded, 

 but with indifferent success. Few readers may care to 

 sympathise with the distress of a naturalist who looks on 

 his specimens, not only as scientific documents bringing 

 some additions to our knowledge of the structure and 

 relations of the organised world, but as things of beauty 

 giving delight to the senses of form and colour, when, 

 after much pains and care, he finds the flowers change 

 their hues and drop off, the leaves turn black, and when 

 mould, the sure sign of decomposition, begins to encrust 

 the stems and fruits. 



At 1 A.M. on the morning of the 24th we were again 

 imder steam, and soon after daylight speed was slackened 

 as we lay off Mazagan. The abruptness of the transition 

 from deep blue water in the oflBng to a somewhat milky 

 green where the ship gets into shallower water here 

 attracted our notice. It is of common occurrence even on 

 coasts where there is reason to believe that the bed of the 

 sea shelves vary gradually away from the shore, and one 

 might expect a gradual change of tint ; but no satisfactory 

 explanation occurred to us.' It was some time before the 

 land came in sight, and we were able to make out the 

 square tower of the Portuguese fort that marks the position 

 of Mazagan. The town stands on a slightly projecting 

 point of land facing northward, and therefore especially 

 exposed to the north-east breeze that prevails throughout 

 the spring and summer. We lay all day rolling heavily, 

 and the smrf, breaking in hills of foam upon the shore, was 

 too high to allow of the landing of cargo ; but in the 

 afternoon a small boat put off with provisions. Amongst 

 these was a large freshwater fish, a species of shad, that 

 had been caught in the Oued Oum-er-bia which runs into 



• Professor Tyndall has shown that the difEerences of tint in sea- 

 water depend upon difEerences in the amount and dimensions of the 

 particles of solid matter held in suspension ; but the abruptness of the 

 transition from one tint to another has, we believe, not been fully- 

 explained. 



