280 CONTOETED STEATA. ch. xi. 



towards it, while a minor mass lying much nearer to us 

 was seen on our left. About noon we approached the lat- 

 ter range in which the stratification appeared very irregular 

 with a prevailing southward dip, and the strike NE. to 

 SW. At its western extremity this range showed a line 

 of steep cliffs, reminding us of those near Tasseremout, 

 with the difference that the strata were here crumpled or 

 contorted in a remarkably uniform manner, the same cur- 

 vature of the folds being repeated nine or ten times. The 

 compressing force must here have operated nearly in the 

 direction of the axis of the main chain, and in a distance 

 of some two miles the beds whose exposed edges we 

 viewed must have originally covered a space of nearly 

 twice that length. 



As often happens when the air is nearly saturated with 

 moisture, the horizon was to-day remarkably clear, and we 

 made out the position of the city of Marocco, more than 

 40 miles distant, and bearing nearly due NE. About 

 due north, and not quite so distant, rose the hills near 

 Sheshaoua, and about midway between them a remarkable 

 conical hill seen from near Misra ben Kara. 



Before 2 p.m. we approached a large kashah at a place 

 called Douerani. When we afterwards learned that this 

 belonged to the same chief who hospitably received M. 

 Balansa, and assisted him in exploring the neighbourhood 

 until orders from Marocco cut his stay short, we had some 

 doubt whether this was not the place described by him as 

 Keira. An examination of his map and the account of 

 his expedition leads us, however, to the conclusion that 

 Keira must be the name of another habitation belonging 

 to the same chief, lying a few miles farther north, and 

 that the mountain called Djebel Ait Ougurt, ascended by 

 M. Balansa, must be some eminence in the range near at 

 hand which we had just before been scrutinising. We now 

 perceived that there is a considerable valley or depression 

 lying between this outer range and the main mass of the 

 Atlas, which is, indeed, indicated in M. Balansa's sketch map. 



