By 4 P.M. we had got back to our camp, and the remainder of the day was devoted to the care of our collections. Before nightfall Kaïd el Hadj returned from his mission to Mtouga, bringing confirmation of the reports as to the outbreak of hostilities between the people of Mtouga and their neighbours of Haha, with an addition to our escort in the shape of six ragged-looking soldiers sent by the Governor of Mtouga. On the morning of May 28 our numbers were further increased by the return of the two soldiers who had left us at Sektana for the purpose of escorting Maw to Mogador. They were welcome, for they brought letters from England, together with a good account of our travelling companion. He had reached Mogador early on the fifth day from Sektana, and happened to arrive a few hours before the departure of a small British steamer bound from the Canary Islands to London. Before departing, we gave a last look at the neighbourhood of our camp, and reluctantly abstained from attempting a close examination of the ancient castle, or fort, which stood at the opposite side of the stream commanding the entrance to the main valley. We were well aware that any curiosity shown in that direction would have been set down to designs on buried treasure, and would have aggravated the suspicion with which all our proceedings were viewed by the native authorities. We did not start until 10 A.M., and with an unusually long cavalcade followed a faintly marked track that winds round the northern base of the mountain which we had ascended on the preceding day, gradually attaining to a height of several hundred feet above the plain. Before long we crossed the borders of Imintanout, a district including several villages under a sheik who is dependent on the Governor of Haha. Through the valley, which here opens out, lies the main road from Marocco to Tarudant, the chief town of Sous. Jackson, who seems to have gained the especial favour of the reigning Emperor, received, about the beginning of this century, permission to accompany a military force despatched from Marocco to Tarudant, and no other European is known to have traversed this part of the Atlas.[1] Unfortunately his account of the expedition is limited to the statement that the way lies through a narrow defile, where the path cut in the rock is only 15 inches wide, with the mountain rising almost perpendicularly on one side, and on the other a precipice ‘as steep as Dover cliff, but more than ten times the height.’ It would have been a matter of great interest to us to make a short excursion up the valley, and to penetrate this defile, but once more we were doomed to disappointment. The sheik, having notice of our approach, met us near to what seemed the chief village. His language and manner were quite friendly, but he declared that it was quite impossible for us to enter the valley. Fighting, as he declared, was actually going on between the