Since the publication of Arlett’s survey from Cape Spartei to Cape Bojador (1840-44) and of Vincendon-Dumoulin and Kerhallet’s surveys from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Algerian frontier (1853-57) the seaward aspect of Morocco has been known in detail. To the Mediterranean it presents for a distance of about 200 miles the rugged profile of the Rif hills (still unexplored), which generally end in lines of cliff broken at intervals by narrow sweeps of sandy beach, but occasionally open up into beautiful and fertile valleys, with abundant evidence of human occupancy and tillage. About 6 miles west of the Skis lies the mouth of the great river Muhiya; and 10 miles farther on, opposite Cape del Agua (Ras Sidi Beshir), is a group of dry and barren islands known as the Zafarines, which form the best roadstead on the Rif coast. Between Point Quiviana and Melilla runs a low and sandy shore in front of a great salt marsh, the Puerto Nuevo of the Spaniards. Melilla (Malila) is a fortified town, held by the Spaniards since 1653, built on a rocky peninsula and connected by lines of rampart with Fort Rosario on the heights behind. Near the village of Azanen is a wide open shore with the only sand-dunes on all this coast. The fine semicircular bay of Alhucemas is the seaward end of one of the most beautiful valleys in the Rif, clothed with verdure and dotted with hamlets. A Spanish presidio occupies one of the larger of the Alhucemas islands (Al-Mazemma), which are identified with the Ad Sex Insulas of the itineraries. Another Spanish fortress crowns the rocky island of San Antonio or Penon de Velez; and in the valley off which it lies stood a town known to the Spaniards as Velez de Gomera, to the Arabs as Bâdis, which continued to be a place of importance in the 16th century. The so-called Bay of Tetuan (Tettâwin)—the town is just visible from the sea—is little more than the straight stretch of coast between Cape Mazari on the south and Cape Negro or Negrete on the north; but the prominence of these two headlands gives it an appearance of depth. From Cape Negro northwards to Ceuta the most notable object on the horizon is the summit of Jebel Mùsâ, which, though situated on the Strait of Gibraltar, towers above the intervening hills. Ceuta (Sebta), the most important and flourishing of the Spanish settlements in Morocco, occupies a peninsula,—the head, Mt. Acho, standing about 4 miles out to sea, and the neck being low and narrow. It marks the eastern end of the strait. Westwards, the first point of interest is again Jebel Mùsâ, the Elephas of Strabo, and the Apes’ Hill of English charts; the truncated top is usually hid in clouds. About 20 miles farther along the coast lies the Bay of Tangiers (Tanja), by far the finest harbour in Morocco. West from Tangiers runs the Jebel Kebir (880 feet at its highest), the seaward extremity of which forms the celebrated Cape Spartei, the north-west angle of the African continent, known to the ancients as Ampelusia or Cotes Promontorium. The lighthouse, built in 1864 at the cost of the sultan of Morocco, and maintained at the joint expense of England, France, Italy, and Spain, is the only one on the western coast.

The Atlantic coast of Morocco is remarkable for its regularity and sameness; not a single gulf or noteworthy estuary occurs throughout its whole length; the capes are few and for the most part feebly marked. Southward from Cape Spartei the shore sinks rapidly till it is within a few feet of the sea-level. In the low cliff which it forms about 4⅜ miles from the lighthouse there is a great quarry, which from remote antiquity has yielded the hand-mills used in the Tangiers district. A stretch of low marshy ground along the Tahaddart—the estuary of the Wâdi Kebir (W. Muharhar) and W. al-Kharrùb—agrees with Scylax’s Gulf of Cotes (Tissot). Three or four miles farther south lie the ruins of the town of Nebrosb, built by Moors from Andalusia; and 4 or 5 miles more bring us to Azilâ, or Arzilla, the ancient Colonia Julia Constantia Zilis or Zëles. Since its bombardment by the Austrians in 1829 it has been a wretched little place, with a mixed Moorish and Jewish population of about 1200. For the next 16 miles, between Azilâ and Larash or El-Araish (⅛.v.) the coast has a tolerably bold background of hills, Jebel Sarsar near Fez forming an important landmark for the latter town, which, with its Phoenician, Roman, and mediaeval remains, is historically one of the most interesting places in Morocco. A line of reddish cliffs about 300 feet high runs south for about 10 miles from the W. Aulkos, at whose mouth the town is built; then the coast sinks till it reaches Mùlâ Βύ Selham, an eminence 220 feet high. Between Mùlâ Βύ Selham (often wrongly called Old Mamura or Marmore) and a similar height crowned by the tomb of Sidi 'Abd Allah Jelfli lies the outlet of the Blue Lake (Marja Zarkâ), 10 or 12 miles long. Farther south, and separated from the sea by an unbroken line of rounded hills (230-260 feet), is the much more extensive lagoon of Ras al-Dura, which in the dry season becomes a series of marshy meres, but in the rainy season fills up and discharges into the Sebù. Eastward it is connected with the Marjat al-Gharb, fed by the W. Meda. On the south side of the outlet of the Sebù lies Ma'mùra, probably founded by 'Abd al-Mumen, and originally named Mahdiya, after the Almohade Mahdi. Twenty miles farther is the mouth of the Βύ Rakrak, with its cluster of interesting towns: Sallee (Sâlât) on the north side, long famous for its piracies and still one of the most fanatical places in the empire, and on the south side New Sallee (Rabât) with its conspicuous tower of Hasan, and Shelia (Sella of Leo Africanus) with its interesting ruins. Onward for 100 miles to Point Azammur and the mouth of the Umm Rabi' river a line of hills skirts the sea; the shore is for the most part low, and, with the exception of capes at Fadâla (a small village) and Dâr al-Baidâ or Casa Blanca, it runs in a straight line west-southwest. Casa Blanca, the ancient Anfâ, once a flourishing port, was ruined by the Portuguese (1468) in revenge for its piracies. It is now a place of 4000 inhabitants, and has a thriving export trade in maize, beans, and wool, and a European colony of about 100 persons. Azammur (that is, in Berber, “The Olives,” viz., of the Sheikh Βύ Shuaib), with 1000 inhabitants dependent on the shebbel fisheries in the river, stands on an eminence about 1∣ miles from the sea on the south side of the Umm Rabi'. The bay of Mazagan (Mâzighan), a few miles to the south, curves westward with a boldness of sweep unusual on this coast. The town of Mazagan was founded by the Portuguese in 1506, and held by them till 1769. About 8 miles to the south and less than a mile inland lie the extensive ruins of Tit, a town which proved a thorn in the side of the people of Mazagan till they sallied forth and destroyed it. At Cape Blanc (so called from its white cliffs) the coast, which bulged out at Cape Mazagan, again bends east to resume much the same general direction for 55 miles to Cape Cantin. On this stretch the only point of interest is Walidiya, formerly Al-Ghait; the excellent harbour praised by Edrisi is formed by an extensive lagoon, and Μ. Tissot thinks that by a little dredging the place would again become the safest shipping station on the whole Morocco seaboard. Beyond Cape Cantin (300 feet high) the coast becomes bolder and more irregular, especially after the mouth of the Tensift is passed. About 18 miles farther lies Saffi (Asfi), “by far the most picturesque spot on the west coast,” with the high walls and square towers of its Portuguese fortifications shown to advantage by the ruggedness of the site. South of Mogador (⅛.t>.), and onwards beyond the limits of Morocco, the coast, becoming ever more and more inaccessible and dangerous in winter, is emphatically known as the Iron Coast. From Cape Sim or Ossim (Ras Tagriwalt), 10 miles south of Mogador, the direction is due south to Cape Gir (Igir Ufrani), the termination of Jebel Ida u Tanan (Rabbi Mardochée), the last spur of the Atlas proper. Rounding this headland we reach Agadir (Agadir ’n Igir), the Santa Cruz Major or Santa Cruz de Berberia of the Spaniards, formerly known as the Gate of the Soudan. It is a little town with white battlements three-quarters of a mile in circumference, on a steep eminence 600 feet high. In the 15th century it was seized by the Portuguese, and Don Manuel caused it to be fortified; but in 1536 it was captured by Muley (Maulâï) Ahmed al-Hasan. Its merchants were removed to Mogador in 1773. At the mouth of the Sùs Leo places three little towns called Messa (Mâssa), with a mosque popularly reputed the scene of Jonah’s restoration to terra firma. The port of this name, regularly visited by the Genoese traders in the 16 th century, who exported skins, gum, wax, gold, and indigo, is no doubt at the mouth of the W. Mâssa, 20 miles farther south. 6, Ifni, situated in 29° 23' N. lat., and Sidi Worzek, the Cape Non of the Portuguese, are the only points calling for notice till the better known Cape Nun is reached, which lies 5 or 6 miles north of the W. Der'a. With the Der'a the Sahara may be said to begin.

On most maps the interior of Morocco is represented as extremely mountainous; but, while it is traversed from east to west by more than one strongly-defined range, the greater part of the surface is really occupied by undulating steppelike tracts diversified by low hills. The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas (Daran of the Berbers). At its western extremity the range averages from 4000 to 5000 feet in height; after a slight falling off for a few miles it rises till it attains an elevation of 10,000 feet; beyond the pass (about 60 miles from the sea) which leads from Morocco to Târùdant the summits seem to be between 11,000 and 11,500 feet; about 40 miles farther east there is a second pass at an altitude of about 7000 feet; and beyond that the main ridge continues 30 miles at a height of about 12,000 feet, with a few peaks reaching to 13,000 or 13,500 feet. Snow lies on some of the summits as late as June, but it is probable that none of them retain it throughout the year. Taken as a whole, the Atlas has a mean elevation higher than that of any other range of equal length in Europe or in the African and Asiatic countries bordering on the Mediterranean. From the lowlands to the north it has a very fine appearance, rising, as it seems, in steep and almost abrupt ascent, though the real distance from foot to summit is a slope of 15 miles (compare the panorama prefixed to Hooker and Ball’s J/oroeco).

What is the culminating point of the range is quite unknown; the Miltsin peak has no claim to that distinction. The English embassy of 1829-1830 advanced up the northern slope only a little beyond Tasseremut (3534 feet), and Davidson in 1836 merely reached the town, and then turned westwards. From Tasseremut eastwards the range is altogether unexplored for 200 miles till we come to the route followed by Ahmed b. Hasan al-Mtùvi (1789), Caillié (1827), and Rohlfs (1863). The English expedition of 1871 (Hooker and Ball, &c. ), besides visiting Tasseremut, went up the Urika valley to a height of 4000 feet, up the Ait Mesan valley to the Tagherot pass (11,484), and up the Amsziz valley to the summit of Jebel Tezah (11,972 feet). In the Tagherot pass Mr Maw was the only one of the party who reached the watershed; but from Jebel Tezah a ^ood view was obtained southward across the great valley of the Sus to the Anti-Atlas, which appeared to be from 9000 to 10,000 feet high. In 1880 Dr Lenz crossed the range by the ordinary route from Morocco to Târùdant. “First,” he says, “is a chain of comparatively low and flat hills consisting of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks; then follows a plateau with ranges of red, probably Triassic, sandstone; and finally come the higher and steeper peaks of clay slate with great metalliferous deposits. The pass where the descent towards Sus begins is called Bibauan, and lies 4000 feet above the sea. The route down to ‘ Emnislah ’ is steep, difficult, and at times dangerous.” As to the relation of the Anti-Atlas to the Atlas proper at its western end nothing certain is known.

All the principal rivers of Morocco take their rise in the Atlas mountains, and the headwaters of the Mulûya, the Sebιi, the Umm Rabi', the Der'a, and the Ziz are all to be placed in that part of the range which lies between 32° 20' and 32° 30' N. lat., and between 3° 30' and 5° W. long. In almost every instance the summer current is comparatively feeble, but the wide beds and often high steep banks are sufficient of themselves to show the change produced by the rains of winter and the thaws of spring. The Mulûya (Mulucha and Mal va of Pliny, &c.) is mainly interesting as the river which the French have long wished to make the western boundary of Algeria. Its course is almost entirely unexplored. About 34° 20' N. lat. Captain Colvile found it some 200 yards wide but quite shallow; about 25 miles east of its source where it is crossed by the route to Ziz it is already a powerful stream with a deep bed cut in the granite rock, and shortly afterwards it is joined by the W. Sgimmel, a still larger affluent (Rohlfs). Of the lesser streams which flow into the Mediterranean it is enough to mention the W. Martil or Martin (otherwise W. Βύ Sfiha, W Ras, W. Mejeksa), which falls into the Bay of Tetuan, and is identified with the Tamuda of Pliny and Thaluda of Ptolemy. On the Atlantic seaboard north of the Sebû there are a number of comparatively small streams, the chief of which is the very winding W. Aulkos or Lokkos, with several tributaries. If Renou’s statement that the Sebû (the Subur magnificus et navigabilis of Pliny) had a course not much inferior to that of the Seine be somewhat of an exaggeration, it may at least be compared to the Thames in length and width, though not in steadiness and depth of current. At Meshra'at al-Ksiri, about 70 miles from its mouth, it is about 10 feet deep in the month of May and more than 460 feet wide; and, though its banks are 21 feet high, extensive inundations occur from time to time. The tide ascends as far as Al-Kantara, 15 miles above Ma'mûra, and steam barges with a small draught of water could make their way to the ford just mentioned, and possibly even as far as Fez (Trotter). Affluents of the Sebû are W. Mikkes and W. Al-Redem (90 miles long).

The swift and muddy current of W. Beht usually loses itself in a swamp before it reaches the main stream. The impetuous Umm Rabi', with a rocky bed and many rapids, is perhaps as large as the Sebû; but as there are no important cities in the country through which it flows its course is not so well known. W. al-Abiad, W. al-Akdur, and W. Tessaut seem to be the principal affluents. This last is separated by about 10 miles only from the valley of the Tensift, the river which flows to the north of the city of Morocco; and, by the W. Neffs, the Asif al-Mil (Asif is Berber for “river”), the W. Usbi, and other smaller tributaries, receives the waters of about 180 miles of the Atlas range. The valley between the Atlas and the AntiAtlas is traversed by the W. Sûs, whose ever-flowing stream is sufficient to turn the whole district into a garden. The Mâssa or W. al-Ghâs (Wholgras of Davidson, Oued Ouel R’as of Delaporte), though its headwaters drain only one or two of the lesser valleys at the south-west end of the AntiAtlas, is “about 50 yards from bank to bank at the mouth, with a depth at high water and in the proper channel of something over a fathom.” Farther south is the Assaka or W. al-Aksâ, long known to European geographers by the name of W. Nun; and finally the famous W. Der'a is reached, which in length of course exceeds all the rivers of Morocco, but, except in spring when the snows are melting in the highlands, remains throughout all its lower reaches a dry sandy channel, hardly noticed by the traveller in the surrounding desert. In the upper valleys, on the contrary, innumerable streams from the south side of the main chain of the Atlas, the W. Dades from the east, and the Asif Marghen, W. al-Molah, or Warzazet from the west, flow through populous and fertile valleys, and uniting to form the Der'a cut their way southward through a gorge in the Jebel Çoghér, which, as the name implies, is a lower range running parallel to the Atlas proper. For the next 130 miles the noble stream holds south-south-east, drained at every step by the irrigation canals which turn this region into a green oasis, till at last its dwindling current bends westward to the sebkha (salt marsh) of Debiaya. For a few weeks once a year the thaw-floods fill this shallow but extensive basin and rush onwards to the Atlantic; but in summer it dries up, and, like the bed of the river for some distance below, is covered with flourishing crops. From the south of the Atlas still farther east descend a number of other streams, the W. Ziz (with its tributaries the W. Todgha and W. Gheris), the W. Ghir, the W. Kenatsa, Ac., which, after watering the oases of Medghara, Tâfilelt (Sijilmâsa), Kenatsa, Ac., lose themselves in the sands of the Sahara. Besides the lakes and lagoons of the coast district already mentioned, there are several others, such as the Daya Sidi Ali Mohammed, which Rohlfs passed near the summit of the Atlas, but they do not form a feature of the country. The eastern frontier runs across the great Western Shatt, and south from that point lies the extensive Sebkha Tighri.

According to Dr Lenz, in his geological map of West Africa (1882), the stretch of country in the vicinity of Ceuta and Tetuan is Jurassic; modern Tertiary and Eocene rocks cover all the rest of the great northern promontory for some distance south of Wazan, and extend in an irregular belt from the neighbourhood of Fez southwest to the province of Abda; between these two areas there lies a district of Cretaceous formations which extends to...