On returning to our camp, some time before sunset, we found that Mr. Carstensen had received letters from Europe that bore intelligence of the terrible scenes enacted in Paris during the last days of the Commune and the final suppression of the insurrection. As was but natural, this completely engrossed our thoughts and our conversation during the evening. It was depressing to think that in the midst of the so-called advanced civilisation of Europe, to which we were now returning, ferocious passions, surpassing in their destructiveness those of the barbarian or the mere savage, may lie concealed until some unexpected shock causes their explosion. The night was even cooler than the preceding one, and to our surprise the thermometer, about a quarter of an hour after sunrise on June 3, marked only 56° F. We employed a couple of hours in the morning in rambling about the gardens and irrigated ground near the springs, without adding much of interest to our collections, and at about 8 P.M. started for Mogador. For some distance the country was well wooded. Orchards and olive groves did not extend much beyond the bounds of the irrigated tract; the _Callitris_ then became predominant, intermixed, here and there, with scattered Argan trees. In open spots the two showy species of _Helianthemum_ seen the day before, _H. halimifolium_ and _H. lavandulæfolium_, were still in full flower, and we gathered, for the first time, a charming little _Eryngium_ (_E. tenue_) with extremely delicate spiny leaves and involucre. Mediterranean shrubs, such as the _Arbutus_ and _Phillyrea_, growing along with such local forms as _Rhus oxyacantha_, _Statice mucronata_, and _Bupleurum canescens_, would have sufficiently informed a botanist that he was approaching the Atlantic coast of North Africa. We soon after crossed a belt of land showing marks of former cultivation, where no dwellings were in sight, but where we passed close to a considerable group of earthy mounds, partly overgrown by vegetation, and showing here and there the remains of massive walls of _tapia_ that had partially resisted the process of destruction. These ruins marked the site of the large _kasbah_ of a former Governor. According to the custom of the country this had been pillaged and destroyed some thirty years before, when the owner fell from power. The traces of man’s former presence were speedily lost as we entered on a tract of rocky ground, where the tertiary calcareous rock lay in horizontal beds, slightly excavated in places by watercourses, and cut into irregular steps. The increasing prevalence of blown sand now gave warning of a nearer approach to the shore; the distant roar of the ceaseless Atlantic breakers fell distinctly on the ear; amid the increasing masses of sand vegetation became more and more sparse; we rode on amidst undulating dunes of sand until, at length, on reaching the summit of one of the ridges, the blue Atlantic lay before us.