CH. T. WASHINGTON'S MILTSIN. 121 



nearer to the city, are some lower hills, very similar in 

 appearance to the others, and probably of similar geolo- 

 gical structure. One of these, visited by Maw, is described 

 as formed of very hard, dark, grey rock, with knotted 

 white concretions elongated in the line of stratification, the 

 strike from north-west to south-east, and the dip south- 

 west, varying from 50° to 80°. 



Om- attention, commonly fixed on the vegetation of 

 the country, was on this day chiefly engaged by the great 

 range of mountains, no longer very distant, that bounded 

 the horizon to the south. We had expected to find no 

 difficulty in singling out the peak of Miltsin, described by 

 Washington in the first volume of the JoiTrnal of the 

 Eoyal Geographical Society, as the highest peak of the 

 Atlas visible from the city of Marocco, and the altitude 

 of which, as determined by a rough trigonometrical 

 measurement, he fixes at 11,400 English feet. Approach- 

 ing the city by a very different route from that of Wash- 

 ington, we soon convinced ourselves that there is no 

 summit visible in the main range much surpassing its 

 rivals in height, and we subsequently came to the conclu- 

 sion, that Miltsin, which appears somewhat higher than its 

 neighbours in the view from the city, is situated somewhat 

 on the north side of the watershed, and therefore nearer 

 to the observer than any other lofty summit of the range. 

 It may fairly be inferred from Washington's account that 

 he had no opportunity for measuring a base-line — such 

 as could allow him to determine accurately the height of 

 distant summits. The conclusion to which we now came, 

 and which was confirmed by our subsequent observations, 

 was that the part of the main range within sight of 

 JMarocco and its neighbourhood is remarkably uniform in 

 height. There are many prominent points that probably 

 approach the limit of 13,500 English feet, and no depres- 

 sions that fall more than about 2,000 feet below that 

 height. This, as will be seen hereafter, does not apply 

 to the westerly part of the chain lying west of the sources 



