Travels in the Atlas and southern Morocco. A narrative of exploration (1889) (14592764829)

Identifier: travelsinatlasso00thom (find matches)
Title: Travels in the Atlas and southern Morocco. A narrative of exploration
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Thomson, Joseph, 1858-1895
Subjects: Morocco -- Description and travel Atlas Mountains
Publisher: New York : Longmans, Green, and co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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e or glen, where the red sandstones end and themetamorphic rocks begin. The glen of the Wad Nyfis,unlike most of those we had hitherto followed in themountains, wound in great curves, here expandingsomewhat, there contracting to the merest gorge, dueto the presence of intercalated stitfening masses ofgreywacke among the friable clay-slates. .Many ofthe curves of the Nyfis were very picturesque, withtheir outer grand sweep of steep rocky mountains, theglistening semicircle of rushing water at their base,and the projecting spur or cone running into the con-cavity, crowned as usual by some quaint village, sur-rounded by its olive and walnut groves, its cultivatedterraces, and tree-shaded irrigation channels. Everynow and then ravine openings gave us peeps into thehigher ranges beyond. An hour from camp the Wad Teguna joins the WadNyfis, its sharp defile affording a route leading downthe shoulders of the Tizi-n-Tamjurt to Tifnut. TheNyfis itself, it should be remarked, affords not only an
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GIN DA FY. 319 entrance into the valley of Gindafy, but is the chiefroute by way of Wishdan to lias el Wad. We were greatly delighted during our descent ofthe glen to find some undoubted remnants of lateralmoraines at various heights on the mountain-sides, withboulders in several instances unmistakably striated.At one or two places also we were so fortunate as todiscover some smoothed and polished rock surfaces,which had been preserved unaltered by a covering ofmoraine debris. About half way down the glen we camped at thevillage of Tinesk, on the Wad Ait llosein, which flowsfrom the north side of Jebel Tezah. Next day we left the glen of the Wad Nyfis andstruck across the Tizi-n-Gerimt at Amsmiz. Ourwonder was continually evoked, in crossing thesefrightfully desolate heights, as to where the inhabitantsof the numerous small hamlets, which clung like clay-mounds to the mountain-sides, found subsistence. Yetthe people seemed well off, and contrasted favourablywith the miserable and pove