1804.] Trip from Bayonne, in France, to St. Scbaftian, in Spain. 535 
The economy of the Inftitution, the 
fupport ir has obtained, the manufactures 
which the blind have been educated to 
produce, and the general moderation of 
the expence, are fufficiently evident from 
the foresoing extratts. 
farther laid aut nearly 2,000l. in the pur- 
chafe of a houle, and poffefles between 3001. 
and 4001. in the Three per cent. Confols. 
Briftol, Fune 1, 1804. R. 5B. 
, EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
F the annexed topographical remarks 
on parts of France and Spain, hitherto 
not often deferibed, fhall appear to de- 
ferve a place in your excellent repofitory, 
TI may, perhaps, from time to time, furnith 
you with f>me_ communications of the 
fame fort, from original notes made on 
the {pots mentioned. 
As thefe. remarks chiefly relate to ob- 
jets not of a tranfient nature, nor liable 
to undergo much alteration, in the courfe 
of even many years, the juftnefs of my 
obfervations can be but little affected by 
the time elapfed fince they were made. 
Iam, &c. MONANDER. 
London, May 15, 1804. 
A TRIP from BAYONNE, iz FRANCE, fo 
SAINT SEBASTIAN, 7 SPAIN. 
HavincG provided a couple of horfes, 
and a guide to accompany us on foot, we 
left Bayonne, at three in the afternoon of 
the 4th of June, 1738, and arrived about 
fix, at Saint Fobn de Luz. The remainder 
of the evening was employed in viewing 
the harbour and bay, where great works 
were carrying on, to form a port capable 
of fheltering men of war, and other vei- 
{els of the largeft fize. 
The Bay of St. Fohx de Luz, is fituated 
in the angle of the great Bay of Bi/cay, 
formed by the W. coaft of Gafcony, in 
France, and the N. coalt of Guzpi/coa, in 
Spain. 
’ It is of an oval fhape, having its longeft 
diameter from W.S. W. to E.N. E. 
about 14 Englifh mile; and the thorteft, 
at right angles to the other, from the en- 
trance to the bottom of the Bay, above 2 
of a mile. ; 
The diftance between the points at the 
entrance is nearly as much. 
The depth of water in the mouth, is 
50 French feet, excepting on a fimall rocky 
fhore, lying a little nearer to the ea(t than 
to the weft point, on which the depth is 
only 24 feet; and within, all over the 
Bay, at the diftance of 3 of a mile from 
The fociety has. 
the beach, there are from 25 to 33 feet of 
water. 
Thefe meafures are all taken at low 
water, of the loweft fpring-tides. 
At the new and full moons, it is flood 
about three o’clock, when the tide rifes 
twelve feet; but at neap tides; it rifes 
only eight or nine feet. 
it is evident, therefore, that the large 
vellels may ride afloat, at low water, over 
the greateit part of the Bay. 
On the ealt point of the entrance, which 
is high and rocky, is the battery of Sr. 
Barbara, and on the weft point is a (mall 
fort, incloing the round Tower of Soccoa. 
Under the thelter of this laft point with. 
in the Bay, a couple of piers have been 
built for the reception of the fmall veffels 
belonging or trading to St. John, 
The Bay lies open to the north-weft winds, 
which fend in a prodigious fea from the 
Atlantic, rendering it of very little ufe, 
precifely at the time when veflels are the 
moft in want of its protection. 
The importance of a ftation for the 
navy, at the very extremity of France, 
efpecially as from. St. John all the way 
to the mouth of the Garonne, a ftretch of 
above 150 miles, there is no port where 
veflels embayed with wefterly winds, can 
hope for refuge; thefe and other reafons, 
political and military, induced the court 
of Verfailles, in 1780, ferioufly to attempt 
improvements of magnitude in this Bay.’ 
It is true, that about fifteen miles north. 
eaft from St. John de Luz, the river Adour 
falls into the fea, and is navigable for 
middling-fized veflels three miles up ta 
Bayonne: but there is a bar at the mouth 
of the river, on which, at. low water, the 
depth is only five or fix feet. + 
At fpring-tides, the water rifes twelve 
feet more: but after all, to enable a vef= 
fel drawing fourteen feet, to enter the 
Adour, four circumftancee wou!'d be re- 
guifite, which can hardly be expected 
ever to meet: thefe. are a fmooth fea, a 
fair wind, a high tide, and no trong cur- 
rent out of the river. 
Again, more than halfway from the 
Adour and the Garonne, there is the ba= 
fon or inlet of Arcajox; but, on account 
of the fand-banks and fhallow water, it 
can be of no ufe, but to fifhing-boats and 
other {mall craft. 
The improvements projeed at St. 
John de Luz, confifted chiefly in carrying 
out from the eaft point, a mole or pier as 
far as the funk rock already mentioned, 
and another from the weft point, directed 
fo much outwardly, as to cover the eat 
mole from the violence cf the fea, but 
leaving 
