264 SOURCE OF THE OUED NFYS. ch. x. 



At our feet, and cutting off from view the course of 

 the river Sous, the mountain mass that here forms the axis 

 of the main chain presented the appearance of a troubled 

 sea of a light ferruginous colour, declining gradually in 

 elevation from W. to E. At a distance of about eight 

 miles ESE. of Djebel Tezah it sinks to an estimated 

 height of little over 7,000 feet, at the head of the main 

 branch of the Oued Nfys, and offers the only apparently 

 easy pass over the main chain which we had yet seen.' 

 The rocky sunburnt flanks of the mountains were dotted 

 with trees of dark foliage, doubtless some form of the 

 evergreen oak, up to a height of about 8,000 feet above 

 the sea, for the most part solitary, sometimes in clumps, 

 but nowhere forming a continuous forest. The numerous 

 feeders of the Oued Nfys had cut deep ravines in the 

 flanks of the mountains, and were lost to sight, except 

 where gleams of silver light shot upwards from the deeper 

 valleys amid the walnut trees that fringed their banks. 

 Numerous hamlets were seen, some perched upon project- 

 ing ridges, some lying in hollows and girdled with a belt 

 of emerald-green crops. 



It was impossible not to speculate on the condition of 

 these primitive mountaineers, who have since the dawn 

 of history preserved their independence. Leo Africanus, 

 speaking of the very district now overlooked by us, which 

 he calls Gruzula, says that the people were in his day 

 molested by the predatory Arabs and by ' the lord of 

 Marocco ; ' but they successfully resisted all encroachments, 

 and no attempt is now made to assert the Sultan's autho- 

 rity among them, or to enforce tribute. Something they 

 have doubtless gained in material, and still more in moral, 

 welfare by stubborn resistance to alien rule ; but the pros- 

 perity that is sometimes attained by tribes subject to the 



' This is apparently the pass spoken of by Leo Africanus as leading 

 from near Imizmizi (Amsmiz ?) to the region of Guzula (the northern 

 branch of the Sons valley). He says it is called Burris, that word 

 meaning downy, because snow freqiiently falls there. — See Ramusio, 

 vol. i. p. 17, i;. 



