56 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



and silence. We were here shown, with patriotic 

 pride, the furniture which General Elliot caused 

 to be made out of the fragments of the floating 

 batteries of the besiegers, which were destroyed by 

 his red-hot balls. From this point to the northern 

 end of the rock, towards the neutral ground, which 

 separates Gibraltar from the Spanish line, there 

 is no means of going round the rock but by sea. 

 The bold gigantic form of the naked rock warms 

 the fancy of the painter with scenery peculiar 

 in its kind. The sea breaks with a violent surf 

 against the steep shores, which are here and there 

 hollowed out into deep caverns, which serve as a 

 retreat for wild pigeons. Thousands of little sea- 

 crabs, sea-stars, sea-hedgehogs, sea-nettles, and 

 edible muscle, animate these barren cliffs, which 

 afford asylum to no other living creature. The 

 only place where a landing is practicable, and which 

 is frequently visited by the inhabitants of Gibraltar 

 for their recreation, is occupied by a village of 

 fishermen, called La Galetta. A narrow path leads 

 from thence round the other part of the rock to 

 the northern gate of the town. The wanderer 

 going along this path is almost terrified by the 

 nearly perpendicular ascent of the rock just at the 

 place where it is the highest. From this dangerous 

 path on the precipice, you come at length, by a 

 paved artificial causeway over an arm of the sea, to 

 the town gate. 



General Donn, the governor, gave us leave to 



