actual - DSpace@GIPE

TOWN AND TRAOK. 25
Gueunaoui by the negroes. I may add that the total population
of Morocco as well as its area, the southern border not being well
defined, are both rather problematical. The former is estimated
at about 6,500,000; the area at 300,000 square miles. The population
of Morocco is double that of Algeria, three times that of
Tunisia, and five times that of Tripoli.
The headman all night long kept calling to the others sent to
our camp to see that all were awake, so that sleep was hardly possible
to us, though it always seemed to be possible to the natives,
for they take their sleep by snatches, so to speak, that is, they
sleep for half an hour, wake up, talk, sing and laugh, or chant
passsges from the Koran for another half hour, and so on. It
rained and blew by turns exceedingly hard during the night.
Unfortunately for the proposed extension of my journey to Morocco
city it would seem that the rainy season had now set in,
during which travel in the interior is very uncomfortable and in
places quite impossible. The roads are so bad that but few miles
a day can be made, the .rivers have to be swum, and camp has to
be formed and raised in heavy storms of rain and wind.
In the afternoon we took a walk to the old ruined Roman city
of Volubilis, a half a mile distant from our camp. It occupied
the whole of a smooth, oval hill, perhaps three hundred feet high,
a mile long, and half a mile wide. All the surface is strewn with
ruins, blocks of stone which have been for the most part broken
into small fragments. There are only three sections of wall standing,
two of them belonging. to what was once possibly a fine temple
a hundred feet long and seventy-five wide. In the walls of
this are great round arches. The blocks of stone are large, nicely
cut, but not ornamented. Broken pillars smooth and round, capitals
of a sort of Corinthian order, bases, portions of pediments,
etc., are scattered about. The designs though simple are in good
taste, but the carving is rather coarse and rude. The situation of
this city on a low hill at the extremity of the plain showed the
usual sound judgment of the Romans in the selection of sites for
their cities. There is, however, considerable mystery connected
with Volubilis. Several Frenchmen have in recent years dug
trenchea in every direction in search of anything throwing light
upon the age of this city and its history, but though they have
found some coins and inscriptions; no clew to its age has rewarded
their labors. Many of the ruins and the best of the pillars and
ornamental portions have been removed by the Ambe to Mequinez,
,