174 Lieut.-Col. L. Howard Irby on 



and there a small scrubby copse ; the hills are covered with 

 wood ; and the whole country is seamed with red-coloured ex- 

 cavations for iron-ore. 



We remained in harbour till the 23rd, shooting and making 

 excursions in the vicinity every day. Then we started by rail 

 for Torre la Vega, where the country is well cultivated, with 

 vast numbers of fruit-trees and a great deal of meadow-land ; 

 thence we drove to Unquera, on the river Deva, going on the 

 next day to Potes, the capital of the district of Llbana, a 

 large village, also on the Deva. 



Between Torre la Vega and Unquera we passed by an excel- 

 lent road through fine scenery near Vicente de laBarquera; but 

 nothing can equal the wild grandeur of the Desfiladero or the 

 gorge of the Deva, where, for some ten miles, the road winds 

 along the river-side through a mass of perpendicular crags 

 of Carboniferous limestone, some 1500 feet high, with caves 

 and rocks of all kinds of fantastic shapes, the abodes of 

 countless Choughs. 



At La Hermida, about halfway through the pass, there 

 are a few houses and a hot spring, with a wretched attempt 

 at baths which are said to be efficacious for rheumatism. 

 On emerging from the defile the road enters Llbana, a dis- 

 trict which is a succession of high hills and deep valleys, 

 mostly very steep, the whole country so broken and hilly 

 that nowhere could you find a piece of ground level enough 

 for a game of cricket. The upper parts of the lower hills 

 are covered with scrubby jungle ; the mountains on the south- 

 west side have a natural growth of oak and chestnut, and on 

 the north side, high up, are grand beech forests, dwindling 

 away on the tops to tangled beech scrub. The oaks in many 

 places are merely branchless masts, the shoots being yearly 

 cut off when the leaves are green and stored for fodder. The 

 chestnuts have gigantic trunks, but have nearly all at some 

 time been pollarded. The trees and shrubs noticed in the 

 district were, besides those named, poplar, walnut, ash, 

 cherry, lime, holly, wild plum, willow, hawthorn, alder, ilex, 

 mountain-ash, horse-chestnut, elder, hazel, dogwood, len- 

 tiscus, smilax, honeysuckle, wild rose, and jasmine. There 



