f worm-seed
75 and stick-liquorice.[101] The indigo plant (_Enneel_) is found
here; as are also pomegranates, of a large size and a most
exquisitely sweet flavour, and oranges. Ascending the Atlas, after
five hours' ride, we reached a table-land, and pitched our tents
near a sanctuary. The temperature of the air is cooler here, and
the trees are of a different character; apples, pears, cherries,
walnuts, apricots, peaches, plums, and rhododendrums, were the
produce of this region. The next morning at five o'clock, the army
struck their tents, and after ascending seven hours more, we met
with another change in vegetation. Leguminous plants began to
appear; pines of an immense size, ferns, _the belute_, a species of
oak, the acorn of which is used as food, and is preferred to the
Spanish chesnut; elms, mountain-ash, _seedra_ and _snobar_, the two
latter being a species of the juniper. After this we passed through
a fine campaign country of four hours' ride: we were informed that
this country was very populous; but our fakeer and guide avoided
the habitations of men. We now began again to ascend these
magnificent and truly romantic mountains, and in two hours
approached partial coverings of snow. Vegetation here diminishes,
and nothing is now seen but firs, whose tops appear above the snow;
the cold is here intense; and it is remarkable, that, the pullets'
eggs that we procured in the campaign country just described, were
nearly twice the size of those of Europe. Proceeding two hours
76 further, we came to a narrow pass, on the east side of which was an
inaccessible mountain, almost perpendicular, and entirely covered
with snow; and on the west, a tremendous precipice, of several
thousand feet in depth, as if the mountain had been split in two,
or rent asunder by an earthquake: the path is not more than a foot
wide, over a solid rock of granite. Here the whole army dismounted,
and many prostrated in prayer, invoking the Almighty to enable them
to pass in safety; but, however, notwithstanding all possible
precaution, two mules missed their footing, and were precipitated
with their burdens into the yawning abyss. There is no other pass
but this, and that of Belawin, which is equally dangerous for an
army; so that the district of Suse, which was formerly a kingd