1872.] MAW PLAm OP MOROCCO. 87 



vertical mesozoic beds, to the south of Cape Spartel, as a long cliiF 

 nearly 50 feet high, as low shoals near Casa Blanca, as a compact 

 cliff about 50 feet high at Saffe, and as a coast cliff and islands at 

 Mogador, where the concrete sand-beds attain a height of 60 or 70 

 feet above the sea-level. It seems probable that this elevation of 

 coast-line was coincident with a similar rise, implied by the exist- 

 ence of concrete sand-cliffs, aU along the Spanish and Portuguese 

 coasts, viz. : — on the eastern face of Gibraltar, where stratified raised 

 beaches are seen cropping up at a considerable height from under 

 the great mass of drift-sand in Catalan Bay ; at Cadiz, as low cKffs 

 40 to 50 feet high, forming a hard coarse freestone of which the 

 city is built ; and also at the Rock of Lisbon, where, at a height of 

 from 150 to 180 feet, isolated fragments of stratified concrete sand- 

 stone are seen clinging to the sea-escarpment of the older rocks. 



The great range of latitude included in this simultaneous coast- 

 rise, suggests the probability that the elevation of similar coast- 

 beds in Devon and Cornwall may pertain to the same movement. 



Judging from the evidence afforded by the coast near Mogador, a 

 subsequent submergence appears to be taking place. The island 

 forming a breakwater to the harbour, which is now separated by a 

 channel 27 feet deep, was, within the memory of the last generation, 

 connected with the mainland at low water, so that cattle could be 

 driven across : formerly steamers had to round the island, but now 

 pass into the harbour between the island and the town. The island 

 is sensibly diminishing in bulk ; and, from observations made by M. 

 Beaumier, the French Consul, its area has been reduced one-fourth 

 in 20 years ; but whether from denudation or subsidence is not clear, 

 though the formation of a channel 27 feet deep cannot possibly in 

 such a position have been due to submarine deniidation. The sea is 

 moreover sensibly encroaching, as an old Portuguese Port and some 

 Moorish buildings are now environed with sand and salt-marsh 

 close to the sea, in a position where they w^ould not have been built. 

 This submergence of the coast at Mogador may perhaps be contem- 

 poraneous with the subsidence at Benghazi, Barbary, described by 

 Mr. G. B. Stacey in the twenty -third volume of the Quarterly Journal. 

 The general absence of cliffs characterizes nearly the whole of the 

 Barbary coast. A few low cliffs occur at scattered intervals west of 

 Tangier ; but from Cape Spartel to Cape Cantin a low monotonous 

 coast shelves under the waters of the Atlantic, and not a cliff is to 

 be seen, save an occasional raised beach. After rounding Cape 

 Cantin the coast trends nearly north and south ; and here the first 

 good coast-section presents itself as a vertical cliff nearly 200 feet 

 high (PL III. fig. 2), consisting of nearly level stratified alternations 

 of grey and reddish marl, and fine-grained sandstone with beds of 

 argillaceous carbonate of iron resembling the cement-stone of the 

 Kimmeridge clay. 



At a distance the cliff has a massive rocky aspect due to the ver- 

 tical inffltration of tufaceous seams, which support the softer beds 

 and stand out in prominent masses. The cliffs continue southwards 

 to Saffe, where I obtained a small series of fossils from the section 



h2 



