12 
FROM PORTSMOUTH TO TENERIFFE. 
GIBRALTAR. 
Stirring recollections are aroused by the name of Gibraltar—that “lion couchant which 
keeps watch and ward at the gate of the Mediterranean. To the newcomer it presents a 
singular combination of rocks and bastions, barracks and piles of cannon balls, red coats 
and strange turbaned and slippered white figures hailing from Ceuta and Tangier. An 
unexpected feature of street life is the Irish jaunting-car, probably introduced by some 
patriotic w r arrior from Erin. 
One of our earliest visits was paid to the famous Cave of St. Michael, the entrance 
to which is a short distance below the O’Hara Tower. We were furnished with a supply 
of blue lights, and the aspect of the vast cave when thus illuminated was truly sublime. 
THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR, FROM THE SEA. 
The stalactites suspended from the roof—the grotesque masses of stalagmites rising from the 
floor of the cave, sometimes assuming the shape of an altar—the massive pillars formed by 
the junction of both—seemed the work of the fabled genii of the under-world, and presented 
in their ensemble the similitude of a Gothic cathedral. A number of bones and pieces of 
earthenware collected in this and other caves were subsequently sent on board, but on 
examination they proved to be of comparatively recent date. 
On the 23rd of the month, His Excellency Sir F. Williams “ of Kars,” Governor of 
Gibraltar, visited the ship. Next day H.M. gunboat “ Pigeon,” placed at our disposal by 
Commodore (now Admiral) Phillimore, carried us across the bay to Algesiras. Having paid 
our respects to the Spanish Governor, Don Beaumont, and inspected a recently-erected 
amphitheatre devoted to bull-fights, we started for our destination—a waterfall called “ La 
Chorrea, situated at the head of a romantic glen. While resting and admiring - the scene 
before us, which bore no slight resemblance to some of the summer resorts of holiday-folk 
in our own islands, we witnessed an operation with which northern life had not rendered 
us familiar namely, the gathering of oranges. The sight of the golden fruit profusely 
