120 THE OUED NYFS. ch. v. 



the chief stjeams flowing northward from the Great Atlas. 

 We started about 7 a.m., and soon reached the banks, 

 fringed with magnificent oleanders in full flower, below 

 which the shallow stream runs in a deep bed. Like all 

 the rivers of this country, this is liable to great oscillations ; 

 and though it seemed nowhere two feet deep when we 

 crossed it, travellers are said to be sometimes detained for 

 days, owing to the impossibility of fording the stream in 

 rainy weather. 



We found here a few plants not hitherto seen, but 

 were especially pleased with an undescribed Statice {S. 

 ornata, Ball), not found elsewhere on our journey, whose 

 numerous bright amethyst blue flowers were scattered on 

 long, slender, much-branched panicles. 



On the east side of the river we fairly entered on 

 the portion of the great plain immediately surrounding 

 the city of Marocco, extending some thirty miles from 

 west to east, and southward to the base of the Great Atlas. 

 This is inclined upwards from west to east, and still more 

 decidedly from north to south ; but to the eye it appears a 

 dead level, and the hills represented on Beaudouin's map 

 as approaching near to the city on the south and east 

 have no existence in fact. The north-western border of 

 the plain is, on the other hand, marked by prominent 

 rough hills of a ruddy hue, as seen from a distance, which 

 rose on our left as we advanced towards the city. 



Some portion of these hills, seeming to form an inter- 

 rupted range, extending along the north side of the Oued 

 Tensift and parallel to its course, was traversed by Wash- 

 ington on his route from Azemor to Marocco in December, 

 1829. He estimates their height above the plain at from 

 500 to 1,200 feet, and describes the rock as schistose, with 

 veins of quartz, the line of strike from north by east to 

 south by west, and the dip 75°. To us it appeared 

 that the higher summits, which perhaps do not lie near 

 Washington's track, must rise fully 2,000 feet above the 

 plain. On the southern side of the Oued Tensift, and 



