CH. XII. RETURN TO MOGADOR. 325 



stopped short, and thrown upon his haunches, by the 

 sudden pressure of the severe bit used in this country. 



To avoid a long detour our course to Mogador lay 

 over the high sand dunes that encompass the town on the 

 land side. The forms into which the sand is fashioned by 

 the wind here attracted our attention. In many places 

 the appearances were exactly those that are found in the 

 higher region of the Alps immediately after a fall of 

 fresh snow, and in truth the phenomena are nearly iden- 

 tical. At a temperature considerably below freezing point 

 snow commonly falls in the condition of fine grains that 

 do not cohere when they meet, and, in a mechanicalsense, 

 differ from those of sand only by being lighter. Our ob- 

 servations on the relation between the form of the larger 

 ridges and the smaller ripple marks, and the direction of 

 the wind, quite agree with those published by ]Maw.' 



When at length we escaped from the maze of ridges 

 and hollows, and stood upon the brow of the last sandy 

 eminence, rather before 2 p.m., we found ourselves unex- 

 pectedly near to our journey's end. The town of ^logador, 

 backed by the island, with a few small coasting vessels 

 lying in the channel between them, presented to our 

 unaccustomed eyes an almost imposing aspect. As usual, 

 one of the soldiers had ridden ahead to announce our 

 approach ; and when, after passing by the Christian burial- 

 ground, we drew near to the walls, crowds of people came 

 out to meet us, and to gaze upon the strangers, of whose 

 adventures in the Great Atlas fanciful reports had gone 

 abroad. At the gate several mounted soldiers, sent by the 

 Governor as a guard of honour, joined the procession ; and 

 thus heralded, with all due state, we made our solemn 

 entry into Mogador, and, along with our kind host, rode 

 directly to the British Consulate. 



' See Quarterly Journal of the (Geological Society, toI. xxviii. 



