[ 23 1 1 
of many parts of Spain ; for no man living faw, nor 
heard his father fay he faw, fnow fall in or about the 
city of Sevil, until the year 1756. 
I found many plants in thefe mountains, which I 
remember to have feen in Switzerland; they abound 
with oak, beech, birch, holly, aud hazel. 
The hills and plains are fine pafture ; I never faw a 
meadow in any other part of Spain, neither did I fee 
horfes and cows feed on hay any where elfe. 
Thefe mountains are formed of fand-ftone, lime- 
ftone, plafter-ftone (or gypfum) and emery- ftone. 
The fand-ftone, is at the fummit of the moun- 
tains, and fome hills, and the lime-ftone forms the 
body ; but the contrary is feen in others, the fand- 
ftone abounds, and the plafter is always loweft. 
As for example, the high mountain of Arandilla, 
which is a fmall league off the town, is all fand-ftone 
at the fummit ; its body is a mafs of afh- coloured 
lime-ftone, in which is found imprifoned petrified 
cornu ammonis, and fcollop ftiells ; and there are beds 
of plafter-ftone at its foot, towards the plain ; thefe 
join to a ftratum of black marble veined white and 
yellow, which is no more than a purer kind of lime- 
ftone, as all other marbles are. 
On the hill to the eaft of Reynofa, and in the 
plain, are found great blocks of emery- ftone, of which 
I. will fay a word, becaufe I think its nature is not 
truely known ; at leaft that of Spanifh emery, which 
the looking-glafs grinders of the king’s fabric at 
St. Ildefonfo fay is the moft biting emery, they ever 
ufed ; and 1 never faw any other in its native 
matrix. 
That 
