It seemed that El Graoui, for his own reasons, wished to give us a parting testimony of good-will and favour, without at the same time committing himself too glaringly for native ideas. It was not, doubtless, by mere accident that about a mile outside the walls we found him close to our track, with a train of mounted attendants, superintending the process of locust slaughter, and were informed that he wished to bid us farewell. Mounted on a splendid black charger, the old man, in spite of his unwieldy figure, had a commanding appearance. His manner was quite friendly; and, as the brief conversation proceeded, he rode along with us for a couple of hundred yards, and then shook hands with many good wishes for our safety and success. The process of locust destruction which El Graoui was supposed to superintend was of the rudest description. The bodies of the bloated sluggish insects are swept into heaps with rough brooms, and a fire of twigs is then lighted over each heap. On the way from Sektana to Mogador, Maw afterwards saw another more expeditious process adopted in a part of the country intersected by open irrigation channels. Rough screens made of reeds are set up along one side of the watercourse, as shown in the annexed cut, and the inactive insects, being driven against them, fall into the water and are drowned. Some effect may doubtless be produced by these contrivances; but it seems very doubtful whether, if every locust that reaches the inhabited districts were destroyed, the plague would be materially abated. In a region including wide tracts almost without population there are unlimited opportunities for depositing the eggs; from these arise countless swarms, which, in their active condition, are capable of traversing wide spaces in search of nourishment. The suppression of the locust plague probably [Illustration] awaits the spread of some creature to which their eggs would afford suitable food. In great measure influenced by Washington’s account of his visit to Tasseremout, and his conviction that from that place the highest ridge of the Atlas might be reached in a single day’s excursion, we had decided on making that our first halting-place; and, as the distance can be little over twenty miles, we reckoned on reaching it by evening. Our way lay about due south-east through the district of Mesfioua, which is under the rule of a Kaïd, or subgovernor, subject to the orders of El Graoui. To the eye the country seems a dead level; but the rapid flow of water in the covered channels and smaller open rivulets showed that the slope of the ground from south to north is very decided. Along the smaller watercourses we noticed in abundance what appeared to be a new _Pulicaria_, but was afterwards found to be the same as an eastern species (_P. longifolia_) described by Boissier.