GEOLOaY OF MAEOCCO Ai^D GEEAT ATLAS. 457 



the sea, bounds the view to the south, framing-in the great plain, 

 here some 50 mUes broad, which is lost as a level horizon in the 

 eastern distance. 



The Atlas Range. — Commencing at Cape Guer, on the At- 

 lantic sea-board, the range, which at a little distance has the 

 aspect of a single ridge, averages at its western extremity from 

 4,000 to 5,000 feet in height, from which it slightly falls off in 

 height for a few mUes, and then gradually increases in height as 

 it recedes from the coast. In the eastern part of the province 

 of Haha the summits probably attain to a height of about 

 10,000 feet. At a point about 60 miles from the sea there is a 

 comparatively deep breach in the range, through which runs the 

 main road to Tarudant. Eastward of that pass the projecting 

 summits appear to lie between 11,000 and 11,500 feet above the 

 sea to a distance from the coast of about 100 miles, and about 

 SW. of the city of Marocco, where a second depression occurs, 

 affording a pass to the south, at an altitude of about 7,000 feet. 

 Immediately east of this, and due south of the city of Marocco, 

 the range for 30 miles in length presents a long unbroken ridge, 

 12,000 feet in height, on which are deposited a few isolated 

 crags and peaks rising from 500 to 800 feet above the general 

 level ; and it is doubtful whether this part of the chain attains 

 an extreme height of 13,000 feet. Still farther east the ridge- 

 like character is lost, the range becoming broken up into a series 

 of less continuous peaks (including MUtsin, estimated by Lieut. 

 Washington to be 11,400 feet in' altitude, and supposed by him 

 to be the highest point in the chain) of diminished height : be- 

 yond this, eastward, little or nothing is known either of the 

 altitude or character of the range, excepting that it trends NE. 

 by E. towards the southern borders of Algeria on the Sahara. 



Rohlfs, in his journal of his overland journey from Ma- 

 rocco to Tripoli, speaks of mountains to the east of Marocco 

 being covered with perpetual snow ; but this is a character 

 which has been erroneously attributed to the Maroccan section 

 of the Atlas range. When we arrived at Marocco in the first 

 week of May, the snow was limited to steep gullies and drifts — 

 all the exposed parts, including the very summit, being entirely 

 bare. There were, however, frequent storms, which intermit- 

 tently covered the range down to 7,000 or 8,000 feet ; but it is 

 certain that these occasional falls would be rapidly cleared off 



