20 Voyage of the Novara. 



Like a colossal giant, guarding the portal of Europe, and 

 converted, by the energy and ingenuity of the British, into 

 an almost impregnable outpost, this precipitous rock has, as 

 regards the Mediterranean, the same high strategic importance 

 for that great maritime people, as Heligoland for the German 

 Ocean, Aden for the Red Sea, Ceylon and Singapore for the 

 Indian Archipelago, Hongkong for the Chinese waters, or 

 the Cape and St. Helena for the Atlantic Ocean. 



Gibraltar was already strongly fortified, when it belonged 

 to the Andalusian kingdom, but its grandest fortifications 

 date from the treaty of Utrecht (1713), when it became 

 an appanage of the British crown. Stupendous and in- 

 comparable are the works which since that period have been 

 executed on it, though the calcareous formation of the locality 

 and its numerous caves may have considerably facilitated their 

 construction. 



The English authorities, who so kindly assisted in the 

 scientific researches, obligingly furnished each individual of 

 the frigate's staff with a written permission to inspect the 

 fortifications as often as they pleased, and thereby afforded 

 them the particular gratification of being able to view and 

 admire these vast structures in all their details. 



Excellent and well-kept roads lead to the principal fortifica- 

 tions, which only begin at an elevation of several hundred 

 feet above the town. The galleries, hewn in the solid rock, 

 forming a kind of casemates, are of such breadth and height 

 that they may be conveniently traversed by a man on horse- 



