114 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



full of good nature, and engaged us on the spot to dine 

 with him that day. 



We sought the town-major for a pass to visit the lines. 

 While awaiting his arrival I purchased a stock of white 

 glass bottles, with a view to experiments on the color of 

 the sea. Mr. Huggins and myself, who wished to see the 

 rock, were taken by Captain Salmond to the library, where 

 a model of Gibraltar is kept, and where we had a useful 

 preliminary lesson. At the library we met Colonel Maberly, 

 a courteous and kindly man, who gave us good advice re- 

 garding our excursion. He sent an orderly with us to the 

 entrance of the lines. The orderly handed us over to an 

 intelligent Irishman, who was directed to show us every- 

 thing that we desired to see, and to hide nothing from us. 

 We took the " upper line," traversed the galleries hewn 

 through the limestone; looked through the embrasures, 

 which opened like doors in the precipice, toward the hills 

 of Spain; reached St. George's hall, and went still higher, 

 emerging on the summit of one of the noblest cliffs I have 

 ever seen. 



Beyond were the Spanish lines, marked by a line of 

 white sentry-boxes; nearer were the English lines, less con- 

 spicuously indicated; and between both was the neutral 

 ground. Behind the Spanish lines rose the conical hill 

 called the Queen of Spain's Chair. The general aspect of 

 the mainland from the rock is bold and rugged. Dou- 

 bling back from the galleries, we struck upward toward 

 the crest, reached the signal station, where we indulged 

 in " shandy-gaff " and bread and cheese. Thence to 

 0'llara's Tower, the highest point of the rock. It was 

 built by a former governor, who, forgetful of the laws of 

 terrestrial curvature, thought he might look from the tower 

 into the port of Cadiz. The tower is riven, and it may be 

 climbed along the edges of the crack. We got to the top 

 of it; thence descended the curious Mediterranean Stair a 

 zigzag, mostly of steps down a steeply falling slope, amid 

 palmetto brush, aloes, and prickly pear. 



Passing over the Windmill Hill, we were joined at the 

 "Governor's Cottage" by a car, and drove afterward to the 

 lighthouse at Europa Point. The tower was built, I be- 

 lieve, by Queen Adelaide, and it contains a fine dioptric ap- 

 paratus of the first order, constructed by Messrs. Chance, of 

 Birmingham. At the appointed hour we were at the Con- 



