NEUTBAL GBOUND. 
23 
There are several pleasant walks about the town, 
but perhaps the best is in the Alameda, or Eliott 
Garden, situated at the south end ; it is prettily 
laid out, and in commemoration of the heroic de- 
fender, General Eliott (afterwards Lord Heathfield), a 
bronze bust on a column has been erected to his me- 
mory. Plants of different sorts — semi-tropical cacti, 
dwarf palm, Spanish broom, the yellow blossoms of 
which are mixed with the varied colours of fuchsia, 
orange, and oleanders — render it a most charming 
promenade, and during the fine evenings military 
band performances take place, when it is usually 
thronged with visitors. Continuing our walk farther 
south, we passed the dockyard convict establishment, 
and barracks, and on the lowest terrace, which juts 
farthest into the sea, came upon the lighthouse on 
the celebrated Europa Point. 
On the north «end of the Rock is the sandy neck of 
land called by the Spaniards “ El Istmo,” and by the 
English the “Neutral Ground.” It runs between 
the Mediterranean and the Bay, and is about 
mile in length and 2700 feet in width. This plain, 
which is not more than 10 feet above the level of 
the sea, owes its origin to the formation of a dune 
in the rocky bed of the ocean. Strong easterly 
gales seem by degrees to have accumulated the sand 
on this shallow run of the sea, which formerly sepa- 
rated Gibraltar from Spain. Until quite recently 
the inhabitants were almost entirely dependeut for 
