CH. Til. WASHINGTON'S OBSERVATIONS. 155 



Wasliington speaks of a base-line of seventeen miles 

 which served him for his trigonometrical observations, but 

 it is obvious from his narrative that this cannot have been 

 measured so as to admit of much accuracy in his results. 

 As a matter of fact, it appears from his map and accom- 

 panying section, and from the narrative of his excursion 

 to Tagherain, that Washington considerably underrated the 

 distance from the city to the crest of the Great Atlas. 

 His Miltsin is doubtless a summit near the head of the 

 Ourika valley, which apparently stands some short way 

 north of the axis of the chain. According to the scale of 

 his map Miltsin is twenty-seven and a half geographical 

 miles distant from the house which he occupied, whereas 

 it is impossible to estimate the true distance at less 

 than thirty-three geographical miles. If we allow for 

 the height of Marocco above the sea level, and increase 

 the estimated height of JMiltsin in the ratio of its true 

 distance to that assumed by Washington, we get for the 

 height of the peak 13,352 feet (4,069*6 m.) above the sea, 

 which is perhaps somewhat above the true measurement. 



Owing to the prevalence of clouds during the latter 

 period of our stay in Marocco, we failed to secure a satis- 

 factory outline of the Atlas chain ; but, through the kind- 

 ness of Sir J. D, Hay, we are enabled to insert a copy of 

 a drawing made by the late Mr. William Prinsep, who 

 accompanied the mission to Marocco in December, 1829. 

 The view of the same range given in Jackson's generally 

 accurate work must have been done from description or 

 from imperfect recollection, as it bears no resemblance to 

 nature. 



We had been many times struck by the demeanour of 

 the wild birds during our journey from Mogador. They 

 seem in this country to be quite free from what we look 

 on as the instinctive fear of man, which in truth is an in- 

 herited tendency only in those countries where the human 

 population habitually pwsues them. As we rode along, 

 the turtle doves, which abound wherever there are trees 



