bridges and walled gardens, its large _ksor_ and saints’ tombs, that all that is prosperous and wealthy in Tafilet is to be found, and it is little wonder that the inhabitants of this quarter of the oasis give themselves airs above the rest of the population. Gurlan, which Caillié mentions as the capital at the time of his visit to Tafilet in 1828, no longer plays a part of any importance in the oasis, though it still exists as a large _ksar_. Having briefly described the different districts of the oasis, mention must now be made of the system of irrigation employed in the cultivation of so large an extent of soil. Fortunately the lie of the land is such that water has not to be raised by artificial means, the gradual slope of the valley allowing of the drawing of inexhaustible water-supplies from the Wad Ziz. Innumerable canals and conduits pierce the oasis in every direction, some of them as much as 15 or 20 feet in width and of considerable depth, while the water is pure and transparent, and flows very fast. Near the ruins of Medinat el Aamra, or Sijilmassa, is the largest and deepest canal I saw, the channel bricked and bridged wherever the road or a track crosses it. This channel must be from 20 to 30 feet in breadth, and although my visit was made after a long and exceptionally dry summer, the water was some 4 to 6 feet in depth, flowing very swiftly. Although Sijilmassa stood on the actual brink of the river, the banks are so high that no water could be raised to the level of the town except on donkey-back, or by women in jars, and this canal, which draws off so large a quantity of water from much higher up the river, was no doubt built on this account. So numerous and so connected one with another are the canals and conduits of the oasis, that one crosses them almost at every 50 yards or so. These watercourses are usually raised above the surface of the surrounding ground by banks at each side, so that by cutting away a foot or so of bank the stream can be turned on to the level of the soil, and quickly floods the ground to be irrigated. The land between the canals—that is to say, the plots of cultivated soil—are usually divided into square beds, varying from 10 to 20 yards in length and breadth, and divided from one another by low banks of earth, so that one portion can be flooded without wasting water unnecessarily on the ground or crop that may not require it. Often small channels are cut on the top of these low earth-banks, so that the stream can be carried here and there in every direction, and turned on just where it is needed. Except to the western side of the Wad Gheris, the crops are all grown under the palm-trees. In El Unja, however, as the land in question is called, there are but few palm-groves.