THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR. 97 



but the masks of guns, which lie crouched beneath the leaves ready for the port-fire/' 

 Everywhere, all stands ready for defence. War and peace are strangely mingled. 



Gibraltar has one of the finest colonial libraries in the world, founded by the celebrated 

 Colonel Drinkwater, whose account of the great siege is still the standard authority. The 

 town possesses some advantages; but as 15,000 souls out of a population of about double 

 that number are crowded into one square mile, it is not altogether a healthy place albeit 

 much improved of late years. Rents are exorbitant ; but ordinary living and bad liquors are 

 cheap. It is by no means the best place in the world for " Jack ashore," for, as Shakespeare 

 tells us, " sailors " are " but men," and there be " land rats and water rats," who live on 

 their weaknesses. The town has a very mongrel population, of all shades of colour and 

 character. Alas ! the monkeys, who were the first inhabitants of the Rock tailless Barbary 

 apes are now becoming scarce. Many a poor Jocko has fallen from the enemy's shot, killed 

 in battles which he, at least, never provoked. 



The scenery of the Straits, which we are now about to enter, is fresh and pleasant, 

 and as we commenced with an extract from one well-known poet, we may be allowed to 

 finish with that of another, which, if more hackneyed, is still expressive and beautiful. 

 Byron's well-known lines will recur to many of our readers : 



" Through Calpe's Straits survey the steepy shore ; 

 Europe and Afric on each other gaze ! 

 Lands of the dark-eyed maid and dusky Moor 

 Alike beheld beneath pale Hecate's blaze ; 

 How softly on the Spanish shore she plays, 

 Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown, 

 Distinct though darkening with her waning phase." 



In the distance gleams Mons Abyla the Apes' Hill of sailors a term which could 

 have been, for a very long time, as appropriately given to Gibraltar. It is the other 

 sentinel of the Straits ; while Ceuta, the strong fortress built on its flanks, is held by 

 Spain on Moorish soil, just as we hold the Rock of Rocks on theirs. Its name is probably 

 a corruption of Sept-em Seven from the number of hills on which it is built. It is to-day 

 a military prison, there usually being here two or three thousand convicts, while both 

 convicts and fortress are guarded by a strong garrison of 3,500 soldiers. These in their 

 turn were, only a few years ago, guarded by the jealous Moors, who shot both guards and 

 prisoners if they dared to emerge in the neighbourhood. There is, besides, a town, as at 

 Gibraltar, with over 15,000 inhabitants, and at the present day holiday excursions are 

 commonly made across the Straits in strong little steamers or other craft. The tide runs 

 into the Straits from the Atlantic at the rate of four or more knots per hour, and yet 

 all this water, with that of the innumerable streams and rivers which fall into the 

 Mediterranean, scarcely suffice to raise a perceptible tide ! What becomes of all this 

 water ? Is there a hole in the earth through which it runs off ? Hardly : evaporation 

 is probably the true secret of its disappearance : and that this is the reason is proved by 

 the greater saltness of the Mediterranean as compared with the Atlantic. 



In sailor's parlance, "going aloft" has a number of meanings. He climbs the slippery 

 shrouds to "go aloft;" and when at last, like poor Tom Bowling, he lies a "sheer hulk," and 

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