JDH writes to his wife, Frances Hooker, to inform her that he is in a camp at the 'axis' of a high ridge in the Atlas Mountains. The party travelled from Morocco to the place where [John] Washington made an attempted ascent, as described in the JOURNAL OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The 'Caid' or chief of that part of the mountains hates Christians & tried to persuade them not to go further, however they climbed to 5000 feet & could see enough to establish that it was not a god route to the peaks that Washington had been trying to reach. They then went further West. Their progress that way was hampered by the mules being unable to continue for more than a few hours in the rugged terrain & they were unable to reach the snowline there. Instead they travelled to the province of Reraia on the headwaters of the Oued El Fist [elsewhere spelt Enfisk, possibly referring to Tensift River], & then further south to their current position at 3-4000 feet above sea level in the district of Sheik El Graoui. El Graoui has taken them to the lowest snow bed, at 8000 feet. They will next make camp at the highest village, 7000 feet, & use it as a base for botanising higher. They will then try an ascent of the great peaks to the West en route to Mogadore [Essaouira]. The mountains are inhabited by a race called the Shelloos [Shilhah], to whom JDH is administering medical treatment. JDH saw the first sign of ancient ice action in a moraine at 6000 feet but there were no other indications of glaciation in the surroundings. He describes the landscape. He characterises the vegetation as 'mainly Spanish' & notes the presence of: Cisti, Lentisk, Arbutus, Phillyrea, Roses, Honey-suckle, Willow, Ash, Oak, Laurustinus Juniper, Callitris, Walnut, Olive, Chamerops & Elder. Also many species of unspecified herbaceous plants including new ones. Above 6000 feet: wild Gooseberry, harsh grass, many herbaceous Compositae, 2 or 3 Saxifrages, Cruciferae & Leguminosae. They have seen remarkably few ferns.
The Joseph Dalton Hooker Collection
The Joseph Dalton Hooker Correspondence Project at Kew is making available online the personal and scientific correspondence of the botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens’ Kew from 1865-1885. The project was conceived by staff of The University of Sussex and Kew's Library, Art and Archive department and began as a partnership between Kew and the University of Sussex's Centre for World Environmental History. It has been made possible by support from the Stevenson Family Charitable Trust. Letter summaries can be searched through Ɛpsilon, with links to images and transcriptions at the project site at Kew (https://www.kew.org/explore-our-collections/correspondence-collections/joseph-hooker-collections).