Atlas Mountains

“ Considering that, in the Romans’ time, Pliny, quoting from the lost journal of Suetonius Paulinus, informs us that the Atlas Mountains were full of elephants, and swarmed with wild beasts of every kind, who took refuge in the impenetrable forests with which those mountains then were clad, it is strange to find the Atlas of to-day so largely a treeless and a gameless land. ”

“ Meeting with men in Mogador who had come straight from the mysterious country, veiled, untamed, and remotely removed from European touch, our interest was naturally kindled in that Back of the Beyond. There is no need for the traveller to penetrate so far as either the Sahara or the Sus. Long before he reaches them, and in order to do so, he must cross the Atlas Mountains by one of the wild passes, and the great chain of the Atlas is still unsurveyed and practically unknown. ”

“ Excluding the mountains of Central Asia, and the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, neither of which can be spoken of as mountain chains in the ordinary sense, the only considerable range surpassing the Atlas in height is the higher part of the Caucasus, between the peaks of Elbruz and Kasbek, whose mean height, for a distance exceeding 110 miles, must reach, if it does not surpass, the limit of 13,000 feet. ”

“ What we now term Atlas is a long ridge. How came the Romans to recognise in this long ridge the isolated conical mountain of Herodotus? May not the reason be found in the optical delusion by which every mountain chain seen in profile, in the prolongation of its direction, has the appearance of a narrow cone? I have often seen in this manner, from the sea, the ends of long chains or ridges, which might be taken for isolated mountains. According to Höst the Atlas is covered near Morocco with perpetual snow, which implies an elevation of above 1800 toises, or 11510 English feet. ”

“ The fresh sheet of snow which had fallen on the Aït Mesan range within the last few days led us to what seemed an explanation of the inconsistent accounts given as well by travellers as by natives as to the existence of [291] perpetual snow on this part of the Great Atlas. From its position between the Great Desert to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the low country to the north, it is obvious that a range of mountains from 11,000 to 13,000 feet in height must frequently be the seat of violent atmospheric disturbances. ”

“ History and Exploration.—The name Atlas given to these mountains by Europeans—but never used by the native races—is derived from that of the mythical Greek god represented as carrying the globe on his shoulders, and applied to the high and distant mountains of the west, where Atlas was supposed to dwell. From time immemorial the Atlas have been the home of Berber races, and those living in the least accessible regions have retained a measure of independence throughout their recorded history. ”

“ From near the eastern extremity of the main range two other straight ridges are shown, diverging abruptly at an acute angle, and enclosing a trench-like valley that extends north-west for fully 120 miles. If this were even approximately correct, we should be led to conclude that the structure of the Great Atlas is quite unlike that of any other known mountain region. The tendency of mountain ranges to follow a uniform general direction is always modified by the numerous secondary causes that have helped to fashion the earth’s surface. ”

“ We had ascended several hundred feet, and were looking about for plants among rocks to the left of the path, when some faint sound made us look up, and we descried, amid the rain and mist, a party of men and laden mules descending towards us down the steep ravine. There was some obvious awkwardness in the impending encounter of three Englishmen, utterly ignorant of the native tongue, with a set of wild mountaineers of the Atlas, in a spot where no stranger had ever before been seen. ”

“ The daring traveller who beards the Winter-king in his own realms meets no more with massive and lofty mountain-crests; a few only of the great chains of Europe and Asia—here the Scandinavian Alps, there the Oural Mountains; still further, at the easternmost extremity of Asia, some scattered summits, which we may consider as belonging to the elevation of the Altai, prolong even to the Arctic shores their cantled and snow-shrouded peaks. ”

“ Looking due west, nothing approaching our level lay between us and the dim horizon. A succession of projecting spurs of the Atlas, dividing as many successive valleys, subsided into the plain; the most prominent, and that extending farthest from the main chain, being the mountain above Seksaoua. Turning the eye a little to the left, about west by south, we saw crowded together many of the higher summits of the western portion of the main range, which was here seen foreshortened, so that it was impossible to judge of their true relative position. ”

“ The valley, with the river flowing through its midst, is entirely shut in on both sides by high cliffs of yellow soil. From amongst the gardens crop up everywhere the ksor with their battlements and towers, each one of which would be considered a large building in Europe. As a frame to this strange scene [172] there is the barren desert, bounded on the north by the rocky snow-clad peaks of the great chain of the Atlas, and on the south by the irregular line of Jibel Saghru. ”

“ Up we toiled until, passing through a narrow gorge, the scene opened out before us in indescribable beauty. At our feet lay the valley of the Tensift, far below us, stretching away some thirty miles or so to where the great range of the Atlas rose majestically from the plain. Green was the valley, green with crops and groves of date-palms, while here, there, and everywhere sparkled and glittered the river Tensift and the many canals that carry water from its stream to irrigate the surrounding country. ”

“ We left Meskala early and in rain, which soon was over, and entering on a little bit of desert country, the Atlas range appeared like a great wall of limestone capped with white in the far distance.
For three hot hours we passed through a miniature Sahara, rocky and desolate, stones, stones, and still more stones and sand, a colocynth or two lying amongst the rocks, some orange-headed thistles, Ziziphus Lotus here and there, some sandarac bushes now and then; the horses stumbling on the stones, mules groaning in the sand, and no great rock in all the thirsty land to shelter under from the sun. ”

“ Metamorphic rocks appear in rugged hills near Morocco, and white limestone on the high Atlas. Glacial moraines may be seen on this range nearly 8,000 feet above the sea, forming gigantic ridges and mounds of porphyritic blocks, in some places damming up the ravines; and at the foot of Atlas are enormous mounds of bowlders. These mounds often-times rise 2,000 feet above the level of the plain, and according to Mr. Man were produced by glaciers. ”

“ The lofty hills that form the outer extremity of the spurs diverging from the Great Atlas slope rather steeply towards the plain, while the torrent issues from them through a cleft so narrow that no path is carried along it into the valley. Trees, that naturally clothe the outer ranges of the Alps, are here very scarce, and the upper declivity, as commonly in the Apennine, is covered with brushwood and low shrubs; while the lower slopes are partly under tillage, or else planted with olive and fig trees. ”

“ From above the rains and snows and winds are chiselling away its rocks and bearing them to the plains. In time the process of pushing up ceases; the process of grinding down goes on remorselessly, never pausing for a moment.
So the mountains are eternal only in the figurative sense. Actually their term of existence is strictly finite. Once the Australian Alps had their tremendous peaks, and hills of unmelting ice. To-day they have been ground down to below the line of perpetual snow, and along the gentle grades of the chief peak it is possible to drive a carriage to the very summit. ”

“ Deep, vast canyons, all trending westwards, lie in purple gloom. Pine-clad ranges, rising into the blasted top of Storm Peak, all run westwards too, and all the beauty and glory are but the frame out of which rises—heaven-piercing, pure in its pearly luster, as glorious a mountain as the sun tinges red in either hemisphere—the splintered, pinnacled, lonely, ghastly, imposing, double-peaked summit of Long's Peak, the Mont Blanc of Northern Colorado. ”

“ It has been asserted that mountaineers are fairer than lowlanders in the same latitude. This is generally the case, but there are some striking exceptions to the rule. The natives of the Mexican plateaus are as brown as those of the coast, and the Aymaras and Quichuas of the Peruvian Andes are darker than the Yuracaras of the forests to the east. The inhabitants of the Altai Mountains are yellow; those of the plains of European Russia, at the same distance from the equator, white. ”

“ Setting out from Fez, and traversing a mountainous and woody country, abounding in fountains and rivulets, and extremely fertile, he arrived at the foot of Mount Atlas, whose sides were covered with vast forests, while its summits were capped with snow. The merchants who cross this tremendous mountain with fruit from the date country usually arrive about the end of October, but are often surprised in their passage by snow-storms, which, in the course of a few hours, not only bury both carriages and men, but even the trees, so that not a vestige of them remains visible. ”

“ The Liard, the Peel, the Peace rivers, all have their sources to the west of the Rocky Mountains. Even the parent rill of the Great Athabasca is on the Pacific side also. Nor is this mountain, thus curiously rent in twain by large rivers, a mere ridge, or lofty table-land; but huge and vast, capped by eternal snow, it lifts its peaks full fifteen thousand feet above the sea level. ”

“ The higher mountain-ranges rise far above the zone of life and have summits that are deeply overladen with ancient snow and ice, but the upper slopes and summits of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the Sierra of California are not barren and lifeless, even though they stand far above the timber-line. There is no other mountain-range on the earth that I know of that can show such a varied and vigorous array of life above the tree-line as do these ranges. In the Alps the upper slopes and summits stand in eternal desolation, without life even in summertime. ”

“ This is intersected by occasional narrow ravines, which wind up to the crest of the ridge; and its face, fronting the plain, is for the most part exposed as an escarpment of red sandstone and limestone beds dipping away from the plain, and again rising from a synclinal against the crystalline porphyrites of the centre of the ridge, and unconformably overlying nearly vertical grey shaly beds with a strike ranging with the general trend of the Atlas range. Against the plateau escarpment rest enormous mounds of boulders spreading down to the level plain. ”

“ The far distant peaks of the Atlas Range might still be seen bathed in the rays of the setting sun. In latitude thirty-six degrees, the twilight is but of short duration, and the night dews begin to fall heavily almost before the sun has disappeared. ”

“ For some time the defile continued, the cliff-like walls still showing at intervals excavated rock dwellings, and at one point it receives a tributary stream, with a bed now dry, which had cut a similar trench, and whose cliffs also showed the traces of rock dwellings. As we advanced, always ascending, we gradually emerged from the defile, and found ourselves on the slope of the hills that extend northward from the base of the Great Atlas for a distance of thirty or forty miles, and are probably continuous with the low range that we crossed between Shedma and Aïn Oumast. ”

“ The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas, which, taken as a whole, has a higher mean elevation than that of any other range of equal length in Europe, Africa, or western Asia, attaining in places an elevation of nearly fifteen thousand feet. Snow-clad, this mighty and isolated wall rises so abruptly from the plain that it needs but little stretch of the imagination to understand how the ancients believed that on it rested the heavens—whence, indeed, its name. ”

“ The later revolutions, as those of Tertiary times, were perhaps less marked and extensive. Yet toward the close of this period the great mountain ranges of Asia and Europe, the Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Himalayas, as well as the Atlas of North Africa and the Cordilleras of North and South America were upheaved. The western Alps rose to a height of 11,000 feet, and the Himalayas to a horizon 16,000 feet above the sea, while there were corresponding elevations in western North America and in the Rocky Mountain region. ”

“ Though not high, as heights go in the European Alps or in the Himalaya, they are imposing mountains. It is only within comparatively recent years that passes have been discovered between the lakes and the sounds; and although these passes do not lead the traveller beyond the sub-Alpine heights, they take him through scenery that is no less remarkable for its beauty than for its grandeur—a fitting introduction to those greater marvels in the heart of the Southern Alps. ”

“ Old, worn-down mountains, like the Appalachians and the Ural, broad as they are, have been less effective obstacles than the towering crests of the Alps and Caucasus. The form of the elevation also counts. Easy slopes and flat or rounded summits make readier transit regions than high, thin ridges with escarpment-like flanks. Mountains of plateau form, though reaching a great altitude, may be relatively hospitable to the historical movement and even have a regular nomadic population in summer. ”