previously extracted. Whatever may be said of the effect produced by music on serpents, there is no reason to suppose that it can modify the poisonous effect of their bite, and the real object in these cases is to act on the nervous system of the snake charmer himself. We were glad when the disgusting exhibition was over, and we left the performers well pleased with a gratuity of about eighteen pence—quite as much as five shillings would be to a poor man in England. When once the secret had been learned, many an English bumpkin could be got to undergo the operation for a pot of beer. As we began to ascend the rugged track that winds up the hills the aspect of the country soon changed. Amidst the brushwood that covered the slopes, old gnarled trunks of wild olive, carob, and lentisk stood here and there—survivors of the forests that must once have covered the country—whose charred stems and maimed branches told a tale of the way in which man’s reckless greed has marred the face of nature here, as in so many other parts of the earth. Our last halt for botanising was near a spring, where the green turf was decked with many small orchids—all of them possibly forms of _Ophrys lutea_. We were not then acquainted with the careful observations of the late Mr. Treherne Moggridge, who completely proved that the differences in the form and colouring of the corolla which have been supposed to separate several species of the genus _Ophrys_ are variable, even on the same plant; but our passing remarks entirely tally with his conclusions. As we lingered, the sun sank below the horizon; we unwillingly hearkened to the exhortations of our followers, who seemed to grow uneasy at the chance of being benighted, and pushed on towards our resting place. The weird figures of the stunted and maimed monsters of the forest drew closer together as we neared the crest of the hill, and, in the fast growing gloom, assumed at each moment a more wild and threatening aspect. Bare branches standing against the sky, and eye-like holes in the black hollow trunks, were transfigured by the fancy; and to at least one of us the tale of Sintram, and Albert Dürer’s quaint old woodcut, supplied additional elements to the mental picture; until, as we emerged from the wood, the note of the cuckoo, bringing a whole train of home associations, suddenly broke the spell. We rode onward, and soon stood before El Fondak, the most stately place of shelter for travellers in the Marocco Empire. From without this shows a rather imposing aspect, resembling that of a hill fort. A strong wall, some eighteen or twenty feet in height, without window or opening of any kind, except a central gate, surrounds a large court-yard. We had been warned that the accommodation within was not good, and we were not long in coming to the same conclusion.