“ Miltsin,” so the highest peak yet remains to be ascended
and its height recorded. *
Striking the mountains five and a half hours— say
twenty miles— from here, at Tahanaut, we followed the
K t route of Hooker and Thomson to Asni, a
mud-built village at the head of the winding
A S C E N D IN G T H E G H E G H A Y A V A L L E Y .
Photograph by Dr. Rudduck.
gorge of the Gheghaya, where that river is formed by
the junction of the Iminan and the A it Mizan, from left
and right respectively. So far the track lay along the
river bed among the shingle, which we forded and reforded
at every turn, but from this point the gorges
grew too narrow and rugged for that, and it was necessary
to climb up and down the hill-sides, rounding,
descending and mounting by the barest o f tracks, often
* Mr. W. B. Harris suggests the Jebel Ayishi, half-way between Fez
and Taflldlt, may ultimately prove to be the highest peak in the whole
[range.1
THOMSON'S RECORD 445
hot more than six inches wide, along a precipice. As
the only means of approach to the districts beyond,
these paths are perforce kept practicable here and there
by repairs, but they are only safe for mountain mules.
Hooker’s party had followed the A it Mizan gorge to
where it ended beyond the village of Arromd at Ikhf
n-T’filit P S Head), in a pass across the Atlas Thomson,s
to Tifnut, but they had been allowed to as- Achievement.
cend no mountain. Thomson had therefore
chosen the Iminan gorge, reaching thereby a similar
pass beyond the village of Tashdirt, to the right of
which, on the afternoon of the day on which he had
ridden in five hours from Asni,- he made his highest
ascent, Mount Likimt, 13,150 ft. This still remains the
record, though from its summit, to use his own words,
he was struck by the unexpected sight of | a magnificently
rugged peak towering above the surrounding heights to
an elevation of quite 2000 feet above our point of view
This we were informed was the Tizi-n-Tamjurt. . . The
highest elevation in the A tla s -c e r ta in ly not less than
15,000 feet, and possibly more.” In the name, however,
Thomson was mistaken, for he saw before him the Tizi-n
(Peak of) Tagharat, undoubtedly the veritable ^
“ Miltsin,” with a sharp lower side peak, its «Miltsin!'
distinguishing feature when viewed from here,
called Borj Tishki or Tubkal. Whence the name “ Miltsin
” has been culled I cannot divine, and no inquiries
on the spot elicited the slightest information, in whatever
way it was, pronounced. I can only hazard the conjecture
that Washington (1829) who seems to be responsible
for i t , 1 on enquiring the name of the snowy
peak which overtops the scene to the south of Marra-
* See illustration of one by my companion on p. 51 of The Moorish
Empire: also p. 37 of this volume.
1 R . G . S. Proceedings, V o l. L