CH. i. MAW'S DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 243 



region nearer to the ocean this had fallen mainly in the 

 form of rain. 



After a rather late breakfast, the hour fixed for the 

 departure of our travelling companion having arrived, we 

 with much regret bade adieu to Maw, whose engagements 

 in England hastened his return. He carried with him a 

 considerable collection of living plants which, owing to 

 his skill and experience in managing this difficult process, 

 arrived in excellent condition, and have since thriven in 

 his garden in Shropshire. The soldiers of our escort who 

 accompanied him to Mogador, bore orders to the local 

 authorities which ensured their respect and attention, 

 and, as we afterwards learned, his journey was in every 

 way successful. 



Mid-day had passed before we started from Sektana. 

 the morning hours having been employed in collecting 

 and laying in paper a tolerably large mass of specimens. 

 Our course lay over the plateau, whose undulations 

 gradually subsided towards the Oued Nfys. At a distance 

 of some seven miles from our camp we reached the brow 

 of a range of low broken cliffs of white limestone, facing 

 westward towards the broad valley of that stream. They 

 are at a considerable distance from the present bed, but 

 were doubtless formed by erosion at a distant period when 

 the level was much higher than it now is. Among other 

 plants, a variety of the wild caper (described as Capparis 

 o'f/i/ptia by Lamarck) was here common, and was after- 

 wards often seen in similar stations as we travelled west- 

 ward. The flowers-buds are eaten raw by the natives, who 

 call them Fan. 



Below us, on the fertile tract extending for three or 

 four miles from the foot of the cliffs towards the Oued 

 Nfys, stood the village of Grurgouri, overlooked by two 

 kasbahs belonging to the Governor of the district which 

 we had now entered, also called Gurgouri. The older 

 fortress-like building, standing on a projecting rock, was 



R 2 



