and Geognosticul Constitution of Spain. 9rtt 



The rivers, in most cases, carry but little water in comparison 

 to the magnitude of the land, and the number of considerable 

 mountain chains ; and it is further surprising how insignificant 

 the waters of most of the Spanish mountain groups are, even 

 when the qualities of the rocks favour the formation of springs. 

 The causes of this great deficiency of water are principally the 

 great dryness of the atmosphere — the inconsiderable cover of 

 snow on the mountains, and its short continuance — the absence 

 of forests, and the want of great moors on the heights, and the 

 comparatively inconsiderable breadth of the mountain ranges. 

 The southern and south-western part of Spain, which compre- 

 hends Andalusia, with Granada and Murcia, is very different 

 from that just described. On the opposite side of the Sierra 

 Morena the whole land has a more southern and foreign aspect, 

 a breathing of that African nature, which announces itself not 

 only by the world of plants, but also by the animal world, and 

 man himself. The great difference of climate is produced by 

 the southern situation, the exposure of the acclivity on the 

 south and south-west to the African Avinds, and the strong re- 

 flection of the solar rays from the lofty, naked mountain walls. 

 The mountain ranges are more closely aggregated, the valleys 

 more deeply cut : there is no room for very extensive table- 

 lands, and the more limited ones that occur, as those of Gra- 

 nada, are more amply supplied with water than those in the 

 middle of Spain. Along with this arrangement, there is greater 

 difference among the rocks, and also of their position. The south 

 of Spain, therefore, possesses not only a much higher tempera- 

 ture, one fit for the orange and the palm, but also a more varied 

 and more favourable soil for cultivation. But these relations 

 would have acted more beneficially if the air had been more hu- 

 mid, and moisture had been everywhere more abundant. The 

 deficiency of moisture is the principal cause not only of the 

 striking meagerness of phenogamous vegetation, on the most of 

 the mountain acclivities, but also of the remarkable paucity of 

 lichens and mosses on the mountains on the coast ; and in 

 connection with this is the fact, that the weathering of the 

 rocks, and the reforming of the original surface of the moun- 

 tains, assume there a somewhat different course from what is 

 observed in places which arc moister, and provided with a more 

 powerful vegetation. 



