unuujcu. 



ANDALUCIA. 



341 



i of Uie Alia. Mountains ; to the north are the crests of the 



la, the table Und of La Munch., and the Guadanuua Hill* 

 beyond Mdrid ; to the north-wort U the beautiful green rag* or plain 

 of Granada, deep unk among dark mountain-masses ; to the went are 

 the lofty sitrrn- of Tejeda and Kouda ; and to the eaat the mountain* 

 of Murcia and Valencia. The view embrace* a circumference of not 

 lea> than 1000 mile* West of the Sierra Nevada, in the proper and 

 limited acceptation of the name, and only divided from it by the 

 narrow valley* of the Rio U ramie and Rio Ouadalfeo, is the Sierra 

 Tejeda, the highest elevation of which U 7670 feet Still farther to 

 the wort an the aiemu of Honda and Groxalerna, nearly aa lofty, 

 forming an irregular and wild maw of mountains, which sweep round 

 southward towards Tarifa and Cape Trafalgar, and descend on the 

 west and north into the plain of the Guadalquivir. The highest 

 summit U named San Cristobal, formerly La Cabeza del Moro, or the 

 ' Moor's Head,' near Qrazalema, which in visible at a great distance 

 on the Atlantic. The Somalia of Honda is considered a very healthy 

 region. Most of the towns, villages, and other places of residence 

 art at an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea. The 

 climate in summer U mild and equable, and the air pure and dry. 

 In winter, however, the cold is sometimes piercing, and the rains 

 swell the streams to torrents. A lower range of mountains extends 

 along the coast from Malaga to Estepona. The central part, how o\ or. 

 between Homla and Marbella is almost as lofty as the Serrania of 

 Honda, with which it U connected. This range terminates on the 

 west in the valley of the Guadiaro. It is called the Sierra Bermeja, 

 or Red Sierra. The Rock of Gibraltar looks as if it were an outlying 

 isolated member of this range. 



The region named the Alpujarras lies to the south and south-east 

 of the Sierra Nevada, and is in fact the series of ridges and ravines, 

 hills and valleys, by which the great central mass of mountains 

 descends to the shores of the Mediterranean. The Alpujarras extend 

 east to west from Almeria to the Rio Guadalfoo. On some parts of 

 the coast, as at Almeria, Adra, and Motril, are extensive and fertile 

 plains. Inland, the surface rises into hills and ridges, gradually 

 increasing in height. Vines are planted on the slopes and precipitous 

 declivities, in gardens and on terraces ; orange-trees grow in gardens, 

 olive-trees in groves, mulberries by the road-sides, and ever-green 

 oaks in park-like places, supplying abundance of acorns, which the 

 peasants relish as food. Few regions have such variety of surface, 

 climate, and productions. The space between the higher summits of 

 the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean appears to have been occu- 

 pied by the Moors more exclusively than any other part of Spain, and 

 is the part where they resided the longest. The inhabitants are 

 obviously of Moorish origin, and they pronounce the Spanish language 

 with a peculiar thickness of utterance. Their houses are low, with 

 latticed windows and flat roofs, whitewashed, scrupulously clean, and 

 generally with green plots of garden. 



East and north-east of the Sierra Nevada are the sierras of Pur- 

 chena and Baza, which also afforded final strongholds to the Moors. 

 Still farther north, the eastern part of AmUlucia is occupied by high 

 and broken ground connected with these sierras and with the Sierra 

 Begun and Sierra Sagra of Murcia. From the city of Granada to 

 Velei el Rnbio, near the boundaries of Murcia, the surface, in some 

 parts, resembles a sea of which the waves have been arrested during 

 a storm, and made solid ; in other parts the rocks rise up in cones, 

 pyramids, and obelisks, and the valleys are broken into ravines and 

 gullies. 



Between the cities of Jaen and Granada an isolated range of hills, 

 called the Sierra Susans, or Monies de Granada, extends from north- 

 east to south-west, dividing the streams which flow northward towards 

 the middle course of the Guadalquivir from those which flow west- 

 ward towards iU lower course. The road from Jaen to Granada passes 

 under these hills through a tunnel 



The plain of the Guadalquivir commences some distance above 

 Cordova, but is at first narrow and bounded by hills. Below Cordova 

 the ground becomes less undulating, and the plain wider. The 

 greatest part of the plain is on the southern aide of the river till it 

 reaches Sevilla, the spurs of the Sierra Moron* in many places 

 advancing to the northern bank. From Sevilla to the sea the plain 

 is perfectly level and of vast extent, with the river winding through 

 the middle. The central part produces luxuriant crops of grain, and 

 when the corn is ripe the yellow expanse seems interminable, no 

 object interposing to break the uniformity except here and there a 

 clumn of olive-treea. Hamlet*, farm-houses, cottages, there are none. 

 The lower part U a salt-marsh, in which vast herds of cattle find 

 pasturage. Throughout Andalucia there is in general no other 

 division between properties than low embankments of earth, on wlii.-li 

 the pricklv pear and aloe, if well tended and preserved, would set at 



tnanc* the passage of man and beast ; but these hedges having 

 been gener.ll, neglected, the cultivated expanse is merely dotted 

 her. and there with solitary aloes marking where fence* had once 



!- , ; . j 



nding northward from the mouth of the Guadalquivir along 

 the shore of the Atlantic, and Iwunded on the west by the Isla 

 Mayor, u a district named the Coto de San Lucar, which Is kept as a 

 preserve, and is much roeorted to as a sporting-ground. It is partly 



covered with stunted pines, thick brushwood, and coarse grass, and 

 partly consists of bare sand-hills. It contains deer, wild bulls, wild 

 hogs, and abundance of rabbits. 



Sifen. The Guadalquivir i the 'great river' (Wad-el-Kebir) of 

 Andalucia. It rises in the Sierra de Castril, on the frontiers of Anda- 

 lucia and Murcia, in two branches, the sources of which are not far 

 from Huescar. Its course is westward past Ubeda, Andujar, and 

 Montoro, where it turns west-south-west, and passes by Cordova to 

 Sevilla. Its course is then south by west, with several large bends ; 

 and it twice divides into two branches, forming the lala Menor and 

 Isla Mayor, after which the streams unite and the river reaches the 

 sea at San Lucar de Barrameda. Its course is generally sluggish, its 

 water muddy, and it* banks canal-like. It is navigable for small 

 steamers to Sevilla, and for boats to Palma, where the Hio Jenil 

 (X.-nd), one of its largest affluents, enters it. It was formerly navi- 

 gable for boats to Cordova. It receives on the right bank numerous 

 rivers and streams from the Sierra Morena; on the left bank it 

 receives several from the Monte* de Granada and the Sierra Nevada, 

 and two or three from the Sierra de Honda ; but the Guadalete, fr-m 

 the Sierra de Honda, enters the sea in the Bay of Cadiz. From the 

 southern flanks of the Sierra de Honda, Sierra Tejeda, and Sierra 

 Nevada, many rivers enter the Mediterranean, mostly short, 

 longest are, from west to east, the Guadiaro, the Guadaljoroe, the 

 Guadalfeo, the Adra, the Rio de Almeria, and the Rio de Almanzorn. 

 None of the rivers are navigable except the Guadalquivir. 



Geology, Mineral*, and Mine*. The higher parts of the Sierra 

 Morena are mostly clay-slates, often nearly vertical, and intermixed 

 with veins of quartz ; lower down the formations are mostly tertiary 



I : .1||. : ::' 'I'll.- Si. TIM N, -..td.-i rall^f- :i]V allll..-! .-lif.!-.-!;,- ' '!' |irillMI \ 



and secondary formations, quartz, serpentine, and crystallised lime- 

 stones, including marbles fit for statuary. 



In the Sierra de Gador, north-west of Almeria, there are lead-mines. 

 The sierra is honeycombed with shafts in all directions. The most 

 valuable mines at present wrought in Andalucia are the silver and 

 lead-mines of the Sierra de Almagrera, a district in the cv 

 eastern part, adjoining the province of Murcia, and near the mouth of 

 the Rio de Almanzora. The great vein is about 20 feet in thickness, 

 extends to a considerable length, seems to widen in descending, and 

 its depth is yet unknown. It is a mass of metals, but lead, silver, 

 and zinc predominate. It is let in portions to a number of small 

 companies, and is wrought very irregularly, and for the most part 

 very unskilfully. The silver is mostly sent to France, when 

 coined into five-franc pieces, and is returned to Spain, where it 

 becomes a part of the circulating coin. The iron-mines of Pedroso, 

 between Cazalla and Constantino, in the narrow valley ( tl. 

 Huesna, were commenced in 1831. In 1843 there were 600 workmen 

 employed in the various operations of smelting and casting iron. 

 Motion is given to machinery by a very large water-wheel driven by 

 the water of the Rio Huesna, which is conducted into a dam very 

 strongly constructed. The hot-air blast is in full operation. Iron-ore 

 is also wrought in the Sierra de Honda, and there are two smelt ing- 

 houses on the banks of the Hio Verde, where the iron is run from the 

 ore ; it is then carried in boats to Malaga, where there are foumli i. 

 for casting and refining the metal There are copper-works in the 

 Sierra Morena, on the Rio Tinto, which falls into the sea below 

 Moguer. The copper is not in veins, but disseminated in the rock, 

 which is broken up, and only yields about 3 per cent, of metal ; but 

 copper to a larger amount, and by an easier process, is obtained in 

 the same locality from a stream containing sulphate of copper in solu- 

 tion ; the water is conducted along wooden troughs, in which it 

 deposits the copper on plates of iron. A bed of coal occurs in the 

 Sierra Morena, which is known to extend from Fuente Ovejuna to 

 Espiel, 30 miles, and probably extends 10 miles farther to Villahnrtn. 

 It is wrought at several places, but very unskilfully, with the excep- 

 tion of the principal mine, which has a large steam-engine. The 

 principal seam is near the surface, is about three yards wide, an<l li< 

 between beds of sandstone. The coal is sulphureous, and unfit for 

 domestic purposes, but gives out great heat, and is chiefly used by 

 blacksmiths. 



There are several mineral springs in Andalucia, which are mostly 

 visited for bathing purposes. The most frequented are the baths of 

 Albania, a town on the northern side of the Sierra Tejeda, those of 

 Carratraca, a village on a hill between Honda and Malaga, and those 

 of Alhamilla, about 7 miles inland from Almeria. 



Climate and Production*. The climate of Andalucia, in consequence 

 of the great difference of elevation of the surface, is very varied. In 

 the 'ticrra caliente* (the 'hot land') of the southern shores, the 

 harvests are over in May ; they are a little later in the plain of the 

 Guadalquivir; in the Vega of Granada, which is 2,400 feet above 

 the level of the sea, the crops are green in June ; while the mountains 

 higher up display the vegetation of Switzerland. The S n.u.M of 

 Ronda can hardly be visited by travellers except in summer; for 

 many of the roads are in fact the dry beds of streams, which in 

 winter are fille.l with torrents; and the same observation applies to 

 much of the Al|>iijiirra*. 



Tin; corn-lands and pastures of the plain of the Guadalquivir have 

 already been mentioned. The vine is extensively and carefully cnlti- 



