72 THE RIVER OUM-ER-BIA. ch. hi. 



the sea some five miles east of Mazagan close to the site 

 of Azemom-, a ruined town once of some importance. The 

 freshwater fish of the streams from the Atlas may probably 

 offer many objects of interest to the ichthyologist, but do 

 not seem likely to add much to the resources of the cook. 

 We were told that the fine-looking animal which was 

 displayed at table is considered a delicacy ; but we found 

 the flesh insipid and cottony, and during our subsequent 

 journey we failed to find any fish worth eating. 



Neither on this occasion nor on our return did we see 

 any trace of the ruins of Azemour or of the great river 

 Oum-er-bia. This is apparently the chief stream of Ma- 

 rocco. It drains the northern declivity of the chain of 

 the Great Atlas for a distance of 150 miles, and nearly 

 the entire of the extensive mountainous region, a still un- 

 known network of high ridges and deep valleys, that 

 covers nearly half the space between the main chain and 

 the Atlantic seaboard. Like all the other rivers of this 

 country the volume of water varies to an extent unknown 

 in Europe. In dry seasons, when a large part of the waters 

 that descend from the mountains is diverted into irrigation 

 channels, and never reaches the sea, the main stream runs 

 over a shallow bed fordable in many places ; but after 

 heavy rains the swollen waters have such a rapid current 

 that we were told of travellers being detained a week or 

 ten days waiting for the opportunity of crossing it. Lieut., 

 afterwards Admiral, Washington ' estimated the breadth of 

 the river where he crossed it, near Azemour, at 150 yards, 

 and found it much the same at about eighty miles from 

 the sea on the return journey from Marocco to the coast. 



Mazagan, though a small and poor-looking place, bears 

 many traces of its European origin, as we remarked when 

 we landed here on our return voyage from Mogador. It 

 was built by the Portuguese in 1566, and held in spite of 

 frequent assaults by the Moors for more than two hundred 

 years, having been finally surrendered in 1770. 



' ' Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' vol. i., pp. 132-151. 



