SPAIN. 519 



Face of the country. ...Spain in general presents abundant pas- 

 tures, vineyards, groves of orange trees, and hills covered with 

 aromatic plants. In some parts are extensive plains, almost destitute 

 of trees and verdure, bounded by ridges of lofty mountains, the sum- 

 mits of which are covered with snow during the greater part of the 

 year. 



Mountains.. ..It is next to impossible to specify these, they are so 

 numerous ; the chief and the highest, are the Pyrenees, near 200 

 miles in length, which extend from the Bay of Biscay to the Medi- 

 terranean, and divide Spain from France. Over these mountains 

 there are only five narrow passages to France ; and the road through 

 the pass that separates Roussillon from Catalonia reflects great hon- 

 our on the engineer who planned it. It formerly required the 

 strength of thirty men to support, and nearly as many oxen to drag 

 up, a carriage, which four horses now do with ease. The Cantabrian 

 mountains (as they are called) are a kind of continuance of the Pyre- 

 nees, and reach to the Atlantic Ocean, south of Cape Finisterre. No 

 Englishman ought to be unacquainted with Mount Calpe, now called 

 the Hill of Gibraltar, and in former times one of the Pillars of Her- 

 cules ; the other, Mount Abyla, lying opposite to it in Africa. 



Among the mountains of Spain, Montserrat is particularly worthy 

 the attention of the curious traveller, being one of the most singular 

 in the world, for situation, shape, and composition. It stands in a 

 vast plain, about thirty miles from Barcelona, and nearly in the centre 

 of the principality of Catalonia. It is called by the Catalonians Monte 

 Sorrado, or the sawed mountain ; and is so named from its singular 

 and extraordinary form ; for it is broken and divided, and crowned 

 with an infinite number of spiring cones, or pine heads, so that it has 

 the appearance, when seen at a distance, of the work of man ; but? 

 upon nearer approach, is seen to be evidently the production of 

 nature. It is a spot so admirably adapted for retirement and con- 

 templation, that it has, for many ages, been inhabited only by monks 

 and hermits, whose first vow is never to forsake it. When the moun- 

 tain is first perceived at a distance, it has the appearance of an infi- 

 nite number of rocks cut into conical forms, and built one upon 

 another to a prodigious height, and seems like a pile of grotto work, 

 or Gothic spires. Upon a nearer view, each cone appears of itself 

 a mountain : and the whole composes an enormous mass about 14 

 miles in circumference. The Spaniards compute it to be two leagues 

 in height-* As it is like no other mountain, so it stands quite uncon- 

 nected with any, though not far distant from some that are very lofty. 

 A convent is erected on the mountain, dedicated to our lady of Mont- 

 serrat, to which pilgrims resort from the furthest parts of Europe. 

 All the poor who come here are fed gratis for three days, and all 

 the sick received into the hospital. Sometimes, on particular fes- 

 tivals, seven thousand persons arrive in one day ; but people of con- 

 dition pay a reasonable price for what they eat. On different parts 

 of the mountain are a number of hermitages, all of which have their 

 little chapels, ornaments for saying mass, water cisterns, and most 

 of them little gardens. The inhabitant of one of these hermitages, 

 which is dedicated to St. Benito, has the privilege of making an 



* Mr, Swinburne estimates its height at only 3300 feet ; and observes that the 

 arms of the convent are the Yirgin Mary sitting- at the foot of a rock half cut 

 through by a saw. 



