56 SPANISH CONVICT STATIONS. ch. ii. 



sense, that we found this day was so minute as to be alto- 

 gether overlooked at the time ; and it was only some time 

 after our return to England that two minute specimens 

 (less than an inch in height) were found engaged in a tuft 

 of some stouter plant. They belong to a little crucifer, 

 called Malcolmia nana. It has been found in a few spots 

 scattered at wide intervals throughout the Mediterranean 

 region, and as far eastward as the shores of the Caspian 

 Sea. 



At Ceuta we had the spectacle — always a painful one 

 — of gangs of convicts chained together, and working 

 under the charge of soldiers, which meets the eye in so 

 many parts of Southern Europe. Difficult as is the 

 subject of penal discipline for criminals, it may safely be 

 said that this is one of the worst — if not the very worst — 

 system that has ever been devised. The punishment, 

 however hard, loses through familiarity most of its 

 deterrent effect ; while, far from reforming, it seems to 

 be the most efficient method known for iinally corrupting 

 the less hardened offender. The objections are somewhat 

 lessened when the convict station is removed from the 

 general gaze, and where the prisoners have little hope and 

 even little temptation to escape. 



These conditions are satisfied in the three fortified 

 posts which, besides Ceuta, the Spaniards hold on the 

 coast of Marocco. The most considerable of these is 

 Melilla, on a promontory a few miles south of Cape Tres 

 Forcas, said to be a strong fort, but grievously damaged 

 by an earthquake in 1848. It must be little better than 

 a prison for the garrison as well as for the convicts, if 

 it be true, as we were told, that it is considered unsafe 

 to venture beyond musket-shot from the walls, and the 

 Eiff mountaineers amuse themselves from time to time by 

 taking pot-shots at the sentries on the ramparts. The 

 other posts are on rocky islets near the shore. El Penon 

 de Velez, also called Velez de G-omera, is about half-way 

 between Ceuta and Melilla, and only about eigbt miles 



