226 COMPARISON OF OBSERVATIONS. ch. ix. 



horizon, unseen by us, or was complementary to the pre- 

 vailing red colour of the surrounding rocks, we were 

 unable to decide. 



About sunset we reached our house at Arround. The 

 open verandah on this chilly evening, with the ther- 

 mometer little over 40° Fahr., was not the most comfort- 

 able place for the evening toilet, nor for working in 

 after supper. Under ordinary circumstances, two at least 

 of the party would infallibly have been laid up with heavy 

 colds or worse ; but the last three weeks of open-air life 

 in this fine climate had put us all into excellent condition. 

 A moderate supper was despatched with general satisfac- 

 tion, and no one suffered further inconvenience from the 

 roughness of the day or the coldness of the night. 



As might have been expected from the unsettled state 

 of the weather, the observations taken to determine the 

 altitude of Arround had not been quite satisfactory. The 

 heights deduced from comparison with Mogador, where 

 the weather was also unsettled, were discordant to the 

 extent of about 80 feet., A comparison of observations 

 taken here and at Hasni, on the 13th and 15th inst., with 

 a few hours' interval, gave a much nearer agreement ; and 

 the mean of these, being 6,463 feet (1,970 m.), is that 

 which we have adopted. A boiling-water observation at 

 8 P.M. in the evening, with the temperature of the air at 

 40° Fahr., gave a result higher by 20 feet ; but it helps to 

 show that the probable error is not large. 



The answers to our inquiries as to the Pass reached 

 during the day were, as we had reason to believe, 

 designedly vague and indefinite. It appears to be known 

 as Tagherot, and to serve for communication with Tifinout, 

 which is the name of a mountain district with one or 

 more large villages, whose drainage is carried to the 

 Sous. The main valley of the Sous must, however, 

 lie to the south of Tifinout, and extend much farther 

 east. Our corrected results make the point at which our 

 last observation was taken, 4,821 feet above Arround, 



