It appeared that the tin cases were the real stumbling blocks. ‘When the people of Arround see those cases,’ said Si Hassan, ‘nothing will persuade them that they are not filled with treasure—they will attack us in the night, and will kill you and me too, in order to get possession of them.’ ‘They will believe the boxes to be full of gunpowder’—so ran another version of the difficulty—‘and think you have come to take possession of their valley, and will fight to resist your remaining there.’ We suspected at the time that the unavowed cause of offence lay in the boxes being painted green—the colour of the Prophet and his descendants—but from the slight attention paid by the mountaineers to the observances of Moslem law, even in more important matters, we afterwards rejected this explanation, and were inclined to believe that the sheik knew his own people, and truly represented the strange fancies to which they are subject. The tin boxes were reluctantly sacrificed, and with them the possibility of making any large collection of living plants in the upper region of the Great Atlas. The luggage was repacked, and after several hours’ delay we started about 10.30 A.M. by the same track which had been the scene of our recent night adventure. The weather during the last two days had been gradually changing from the condition of ‘set fair’ to which we had been used since our arrival in Marocco. The barometer had fallen progressively fully five millimetres, and the clouds had changed from their ordinary condition of light, separate fleecy masses gathered round the higher ridges during the day to a dense canopy stretching continuously over the visible portion of the sky. If choice had been left to us we should not have selected this morning for our excursion; but, after overcoming so many difficulties, there was no thought of letting weather stand in our way, and we could only resolve to make the best of it whatever it might be. On this occasion we had rather more time to spare than two days before, and we added a good deal to our previous collections in the valley, though less than we could have done if the precious morning hours had not been wasted in controversy.