"BRISSON^S NARRATIVE. ^97 
rocks which enclosed the furrows were covered 
with the same, and resembled cascades. Thick 
reddish roots and branches, covered with leaves 
like those of the laurel, crept across the different 
crevices. As he advanced, pyramids of great 
stones, white as alabaster, appeared towering 
above each other, and seemed to mark the bor- 
der of a bank. Lofty date-trees, whose trunks 
were warped even to the top, rose behind the 
pyramids, with palm-trees, the height and colour 
of which exhibited proofs of their high antiquity. 
Others of these were thrown down, and lay strip- 
ped of the bark ; they crumbled to pieces upon 
being touched ; and the filaments under the bark 
were covered with a saltish powder clear as crys- 
tal. The roots which hung down the rocks were 
glutinous, and the bark broke off at the slightest 
touch. Advancing nearer Marocco, they found 
lofty mountains covered with stones of rose, vio- 
let, citron, and green colours ; and observed fo- 
rests at a distance. On their approach they were 
astonished to see the trunks of trees descending 
from the centres of rocks, and apparently hang- 
ing down like fruits, while the roebucks coursed, 
one after another, over the hanging rocks, and 
the trees that hung suspended in the air. Brisson 
remarks, that no trees in these forests are injured 
by lightning except one, the leaf of which resem- 
bles that of the gum-tree, or common parsley. 
