288 REMARKS ON TRAVELS 
mity of which is interrupted only by the wells. Beyond 
the wells of Mayara appear the last branches of the 
chain of Mount Atlas. The granite shews itself at first 
in fragments and hillocks, afterwards in high hills and 
steep mountains. Twelve days' journey beyond el-Harib, 
we enter the district of Tafilet. Here the report of M. 
Caillie is widely different from the received opinions : 
1st. He heard nothing of any town of Tafilet, it is - 
merely, he says, the name of a country. It is never- 
theless possible that a town may have heretofore existed 
there, and have disappeared like so many other towns 
of central Africa. I observe in the travels of Ebn-Hassan 
from Fez to Tafilet, quoted in the Recherches sur VAfrique 
septentrionale^ , &c. that the territory only of Tafilet 
is mentioned and not the town 5 which would support the 
account of M. Caillie. 2ndly. This country is much 
nearer to the meridian of Fez than it is marked on all the 
mapsf. 3rdly. It is farther north J, Ghourland, M. Caillie 
* See pages 457 and 464. 
t In the map which accompanies his work, M. Walckenaer places 
Tafilet about 5° east of Morocco ; but M. Lapie, in the map to M. 
Cochelet's travels makes it only 3 degrees and a half distant. This 
is also the diiFerence of longitude which results from the route of M. 
Caillie as tracedby me, the positions of Morocco and Fez being more- 
over precisly known. The whole eastern part however of the empire 
of Morocco presents difficulties and uncertainties, which cause the 
necessity of new observations to be sensibly felt. 
X May not the too great remoteness of Tafilet from Fez arise from 
the custom of which I have spoken, which always exaggerates itine- 
rary distances ? 
