We rode along in high spirits, delighted to leave the city, and still more with the near prospect of setting foot on the mountain chain whose unknown recesses had so long been a fascination for us; and the only drawback on our enjoyment was the shifting veil of clouds that hung about the higher summits, only now and then allowing some rugged peak to stand out for a few moments. As we gradually drew nearer, our attention was more and more fixed on the remarkable line of flat-topped bluffs, conspicuous in the view from the city, that extends for a distance of fully twenty miles along the base of the Atlas chain, and on the east side seems to jut out in a northern direction. From a distance the face appears quite precipitous and almost vertical, and there is but one conspicuous break in its continuity. This, as we afterwards found, is caused by the stream running under Tasseremout, which has cut a deep channel through the barrier. After riding about three hours we approached an inhabited place, which we were told was the residence of the Kaïd. We had left behind us the tract of country ravaged by locusts, and the general aspect of things was here much brighter than we had beheld since leaving the coast region. The more brilliant green and more vigorous growth of herbaceous plants led us to infer that, irrespective of the influence of irrigation, the zone extending round the base of the mountain region must receive at least some share of the more frequent rains that occur there at seasons when the low country in general is condemned to utter drought. On reaching the _kasbah_ of the Kaïd, which showed as a low but substantial building, with walls sloping outward, we were accosted by an official deputed to apologise for the absence of his chief, who was to return towards evening, and to invite us to halt there for the remainder of the day. As it was now about noon, this proposition was met at once by a decided negative, when the chief of our Marocco escort intervened and, with an air of dogged insistance, urged the necessity for a halt. There ensued the first of many an altercation with the same disagreeable person, in which it is needless to say that Hooker’s decision and firmness prevailed, and the order went forth to continue our journey. Amongst the bushes near at hand we for the first time gathered a curious, but no way ornamental, Cruciferous plant, first found by M. Balansa, which exhibits the only distinct generic type yet found in the interior of South Marocco, and has been described by M. Cosson under the name _Ceratocnemum rapistroides_. It here grew four or five feet high, with long slender branches; but in open places we afterwards found it in comparatively stunted condition—a foot, or less, in height.