20 



ARRIVAL AT CORUNNA. 



included between the parallels of thirty-six and forty 

 degrees of north latitude the mean temperature 

 ranges from 62*6° to 68'2° Fahrenheit, and by a con- 

 currence of favourable circumstances this section 

 has become the principal seat of industry and intel- 

 lectual cultivation. 



Ascending from the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 towards the elevated plains of La Mancha and the 

 Castiles, one imagines that he sees farmland, in the 

 extended precipices, the ancient coast of the Penin- 

 sula; a circumstance which brings tp mind the tra- 

 ditions of the Samothracians and certain historical 

 testimonies, according to which the bursting of the 

 waters through the Dardanelles, while it enlarged the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, overwhelmed the south- 

 ern part of Europe. The high central plain just de- 

 scribed would, it may be presumed, resist the effects 

 of the inundation until the escape of the waters by 

 the strait formed between the Pillars of Hercules, 

 had gradually lowered the level of the Mediterra- 

 nean, and thereby once more laid bare Upper Egypt 

 on the one hand, and on the other, the fertile valleys 

 of Tarragon, Valentia, and Murcia. 



From Astorga to Corunna the mountains gradually 

 rise, the secondary strata disappear by degrees, and 

 the transition rocks which succeed announce the prox- 

 imity of primitive formations. Large mountains of 

 graywacke and graywacke-slate present themselves. 

 In the vicinity of the latter town are granitic sum- 

 mits which extend to Cape Ortegal, and which 

 might seem, with those of Brittany and Cornwall, to 

 have once formed a chain of mountains that has 

 been broken up and submersed. This rock is char- 

 acterized by large and beautiful crystals of felspar, 

 and contains tin-ore, which is worked with much 

 labour and little profit by the Galicians. 



On arriving at Corunna, they found the port block- 

 aded by the English, for the purpose of interrupting 

 the communication between the mother-country 



