128 THE ATLANTIC. [ CHAP. IL. 
to be lying in the bay, clearing up in the increasing light; and 
the grand outline formed by the mountains of Seville and Gra- 
nada on the one hand, and Jebel Musa and the distant range 
of the Atlas on the other, glowing out, peak after peak, in rose- 
color and bronze, and then slowly subsiding into their normal 
shades of purple; while the blue Mediterranean stretched away, 
without a ripple, to the eastward. 
The Challenger remained lashed along-side the New Mole at 
Gibraltar for a week. The weather, although it was little past 
midwinter, was warm and bright; the spring seemed already 
- starting, and some beautiful mauve patches of almond-blossom 
lightened up the face of the grim old rock. The aloes were in 
full flower, and the “Alameda” and the grounds of the govern- 
or’s summer cottage were crimson with them. I do not know 
any plant more ornamental. The rich color of the flower-spikes 
contrasts admirably with the cold gray-green of the foliage ; and 
the rigid spear-like leaves have a thoroughly exotic look, more 
so than most of the plants of warmer latitudes. 
January 24th—A small party of us had a most pleasant ex- 
eursion with Captain Phillimore, the captain-superintendent of 
the dock-yard. We started after breakfast in the gun-boat P7q- 
eon, across the bay to Algesiras. After paying our respects to 
the Spanish governor, a handsome, dignified man, who received 
us with great courtesy, and returned our visit on the following 
day, we took a walk about the town, admired the market with 
its ample supply of fresh vegetables and fruit, and visited a 
large circus-like building, where for about a week in the year, 
in carnival-time, bull-fights are held; and which was filled with 
horse- trappings, and banners, and swords, and small feathered 
spears, and all the other tawdry and horrid paraphernalia of 
that barbarous sport. 
A splendid aqueduct, evidently built in the old times, when 
Spain held a very different position from the one she holds 
now, brings abundance of water into the town from the high 
