After leaving the _kasbah_ we rode through a narrow belt of tilled land, and soon reached the verge of a tract of open country remaining in a state of nature, with but few and scattered traces of population or cultivation. In some parts the soil was stony, and the presence of _Arthrocnemum_ and other Salsolaceous bushes indicated the presence of soluble salts, but in others the absence of cultivation was probably due only to the want of irrigation. There can be little doubt that by a more skilful distribution of the drainage from the northern slopes of the Great Atlas, the area of land producing human food might be largely increased. Our course lay between WSW. and SW., and we observed as we advanced that in that direction the outer ranges of hills did not rise so nearly parallel to the axis of the main chain as they do in the districts lying between Tasseremout and Amsmiz. A very considerable mass, extending northward as a promontory from the main range, became gradually more conspicuous as we advanced towards it, while a minor mass lying much nearer to us was seen on our left. About noon we approached the latter range in which the stratification appeared very irregular with a prevailing southward dip, and the strike NE. to SW. At its western extremity this range showed a line of steep cliffs, reminding us of those near Tasseremout, with the difference that the strata were here crumpled or contorted in a remarkably uniform manner, the same curvature of the folds being repeated nine or ten times. The compressing force must here have operated nearly in the direction of the axis of the main chain, and in a distance of some two miles the beds whose exposed edges we viewed must have originally covered a space of nearly twice that length. As often happens when the air is nearly saturated with moisture, the horizon was to-day remarkably clear, and we made out the position of the city of Marocco, more than 40 miles distant, and bearing nearly due NE. About due north, and not quite so distant, rose the hills near Sheshaoua, and about midway between them a remarkable conical hill seen from near Misra ben Kara.