/rom the region of the Straits of Gibraltar. 363 



For some five or six miles from the Eoek the country 

 is rather bare and monotonous, the roads and cultivated 

 patches being hedged with the prickly pear {Opuntia 

 vulgaris) and the Agave Americana, both of which New 

 World plants thrive as well here as in their native conti- 

 nent ; and except for a few fruit-gardens near the small 

 town of Campamento (3^ miles from Gibraltar), trees are 

 conspicuous by their absence. The isthmus which joins 

 the Eock to the mainland is level and sandy, and not 

 more than ten feet above the sea in any part ; and 

 beyond the wretched village of San Felipe de la Linea, 

 just within the Spanish lines, a broad belt of bare sand- 

 hills extends from the Mediterranean beach to that of 

 Gibraltar Bay. These merge gradually into the slopes 

 of the Sierra Carbonera, a range of sandstone hills about 

 1000 ft. high, running north and south for several miles. 

 Although these hills are now bare of everything except 

 scanty brushwood and the usual aromatic herbage of 

 the Mediterranean region, they are said to have 

 been formerly covered with cork and other trees, 

 which were cut down at the time of the great siege of 

 Gibraltar (1779 — 1782) : a few of the characteristic 

 cork- wood insects [Lyccena melanops, Fidonia pliimistaria, 

 &c., still linger on these hills, as if to bear witness to 

 their former wooded condition. After passing the town 

 of San Roque the country becomes much more varied 

 and luxuriant, though still somewhat arid and sandj^ in 

 places ; and, commencing at nine miles from the Rock, 

 on approaching the valley of the small river Guadar- 

 ranque, which falls into Gibraltar Bay half-way between 

 Gibraltar and Algeciras, the fine cork- woods of Almoraima 

 extend for many miles on both sides of the stream, and 

 afford by far the most interesting and productive col- 

 lecting-ground in the district. Almost equally good 

 ground, of a somewhat similar character, is to be found 

 about four miles inland from Algeciras, on the lower 

 slopes of the Sierra de la Luna, a range of rugged sand- 

 stone hills attaining a height of more than 2000 ft. ; but 

 I was able to visit this part on but few occasions, while 

 my almost weekly excursion on foot to the cork-woods 

 during the summer months was invariably a highly 

 enjoyable and successful day's work. 



To complete the account of the Spanish localities, the 

 * Grappler ' made two flying visits of three or four days' 



2b2 



