MALTA AND SICILY. 
9 
our course lay along the romantic coast of 
Gallicia, and we frequently approached within 
two or three miles of the land, which ap¬ 
peared very high and rugged, with scarcely 
a house, or a tree, or any signs of cultiva¬ 
tion. In some few places, however, there 
were fields surrounded by stone walls, and 
we w'ere informed that these were vineyards. 
Some of the mountains had a most singular 
and beautiful outline, topped with perpendi¬ 
cular pinnacles of rocks resembling towers 
and castles, and in one or two places, the 
whole side of a lofty hill as seen from the 
distance of five or six miles, appeared to 
consist of an unbroken expanse of white 
sand. We were surprised that we could not 
discover a single human being on the coast 
during the whole day, though we were con¬ 
tinually employed with our telescopes curi¬ 
ously prying into the nakedness of the land. 
