CH. X. ASCENT OF DJEBEL TEZAH. 259 



dropped behind, and were not again seen till our return 

 in the afternoon. We took the most direct course in the 

 ascent, following a slight gully down which flowed a 

 mere trickling rivulet, fed by the snows on the upper slope 

 of the mountain, and pushed on rather fast with a view to 

 get as high on the mountain as possible before the sun 

 reached the meridian. 



Bearing in mind the great diversity in the vegetable 

 population which is seen in Southern Spain (the high 

 mountain region nearest to the Great Atlas), where neigh- 

 bouring peaks of different mineral structure exhibit nume- 

 rous quite distinct species, and very few identical features, 

 and having found the flora of the lower valley to a great 

 extent different from that of Ait Mesan, we confidently 

 reckoned on obtaining still greater evidence of distinct- 

 ness in that of the upper region. It was therefore with 

 some surprise that, as we continued the ascent, we met, 

 one after another, many of the peculiar species that we 

 had first seen in the ascent from Arround to the Tagherot 

 Pass, and comparatively few not already familiar to us. 

 For once, however, it must be owned that during part of 

 this day, our emotions as botanists yielded to the interest 

 that we felt in the near prospect of a peep into terra 

 incognita. 



If but little had been hitherto known of the northern 

 slopes of the Great Atlas from the reports of the few tra- 

 vellers who had viewed the range from the low country, or 

 attained its outer slopes, the southern side of the main 

 chain remained a sealed book to geographers, whose reli- 

 ance on the vague reports of native informants has led 

 them, like the chartographers of the middle ages, to fill 

 up the blank space on their maps by representations utterly 

 discordant and contradictory. Ever since we had been in 

 South Marocco, we had heard of the Sous valley, as the 

 proper home of everything strange and marvellous to be 

 foimd in the empire. It is there, our informants assured 

 us, that lions and other savage beasts roam at leisure, 



s 2 



