APPENDIX. 



A. 



Edmund Boissier's Account of Gibraltar. Translated 

 from his ' Voyage Botanique dans le Midi de FEspagne, 

 pendant Vannee, 1837.' 



IN the morning, on leaving St. Roque, we had the im- 

 posing view of the rock of Gibraltar, which rose before us 

 like a black mass. The weather was stormy, and the 

 summit of the rock was hidden by a band of clouds,* 

 which I have frequently observed there. Its formation is 

 explained by the situation of this mountain, in the midst 

 of waters, and in a strait often agitated by tempestuous 

 winds. The sea, being enclosed by the rock and by the 

 African mountains, enlarging into a great gulf between 

 Gibraltar and Algeciras, appears like a lake. I remarked 

 by the side of the road a monument erected to a chief of 



* The easterly winds, in their course over the waters of the Mediter- 

 ranean, become saturated with a considerable quantity of moisture, 

 which is precipitated on coming within the influence of the rock ; hence 

 masses of cloud come rolling down the rock, on the setting-in of an 

 easterly wind, and, in a short time, a dense sheet of cloud is formed 

 along nearly the upper half of the rock, which sometimes remains for 

 days. Trans. 



