of the Peninsular War, as the scene of a brilliant and successful passage by the troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington, in the face of numerous strong fortifications carefully prepared by the French, and in spite of an army stationed in great force to oppose them. The view of the two countries, France and Spain, as seen from the bridge, is very beautiful, and includes a considerable extent of hilly picturesque landscape; but the Spanish side is the more varied, broken and interesting, on account of the greater extent of cliff and hill in sight, and the number of houses and villages dotted about. The view from Irun, indeed, includes Fontarabia and the open sea, while that from the bridge takes in only one reach of the river, terminating at Irun; but the latter is also extremely interesting and pleasing.

On entering France, although we still continue in the Basque country, which is so peculiar both in the language and appearance of its inhabitants, there is yet a very marked difference to be observed. Even in the first small village of Behobia, a French appearance may be traced, and as we get on, the towns become neater, the people more business-like and active, the cultivation more decided, and trees begin to show themselves as the result of planting as well as by accident. The little town of St. Jean de Luz is a good instance of the change. It is of considerable antiquity, but the houses are white and the streets straight. The costumes of the people are here very peculiar, and the fisherwomen are especially worthy of notice. A group of them is shown in the accompanying woodcut (fig. 8). These dresses are quite distinct from any costumes of the North of Spain, and the character of the people is not less so.

As we rise from the river and advance towards Bidart, the country is highly picturesque, some hills at the time of our visit being covered with the most beautiful heaths in full blossom, mixed with numerous aromatic herbs scenting the air to a great distance, while others were cultivated; vines, maize-fields, and other produce giving a rich appearance to the landscape, without introducing formality. Hence to Bayonne the road is less hilly, but always varied and pleasing, and before the town is entered a number of good houses are passed in the outskirts, -a feature sufficiently marking the change of country, as in Spain it is very rare, except on the east coast, to find even a

single habitation outside the magic ceinture, often hardly even a mud wall, which encloses the town.

Fig. 8.-Costume of Fisherwomen, St. Jean de Luz.

Such is an account of the country connecting the great tableland of Spain with the range of mountains which separates it from the much lower plains of Languedoc and Gascony. It should, however, be observed that this statement was drawn up immediately after my first visit to the country, when the very fact of the absence of all ordinary elements of the beautiful becomes of itself a sort of beauty, if only from novelty. It must also be borne in mind that the journey from Madrid northwards, starting from a dreary desert, and gradually entering mountain defiles and crossing a great mountain-chain, possesses an interest very different from, and much greater than, that experienced in advancing southwards from the French frontier, and entering upon scenery which becomes every mile more and more dreary and desolate. On a second voyage to Spain, proceeding in the wrong direction, although familiar with the country, I found the road uninteresting enough, but this does not induce me to doubt the correctness of my first impressions recorded above.

It may be well to add one word with regard to the climate of Northern Spain and Madrid. It has often been described as affording every variety of temperature in the shortest possible time, and certainly has not been wronged. I left Bordeaux and reached Bayonne on one occasion during weather so intensely hot, that it was scarcely endurable even by those most accustomed to heat. The inhabitants wisely kept in-doors, with closed windows and shutters, and slumbered through the noonday heat as well as possible. On entering the mountains there was rain, but the heat was still scarcely endurable. After travelling some distance, and as we emerged on the table-land on the other side of Pancormo, the heat had changed to cold, which during the night was so great, that the conductor had to wrap himself up in his furs and warm cloak, and endeavour to forget it in sleep. Afterwards, in crossing the Somo-sierra, we had a thunder-storm, accompanied with hail and torrents of rain, more violent than I have often seen, and on entering Madrid I found that the heat had been and was intense and suffocating. Four-and-twenty hours, however, produced there a change so great that it was disagreeable to walk in the streets without an over-coat, although still the sun, when shining, was too powerful to be at all pleasant. These violent alternations of heat and cold are quite characteristic of high table-lands, especially when, as in Spain, they are bounded by lofty mountain-chains, rising here and there above the line of perpetual snow, and not so distant as to allow of the winds blowing from them to become warmed. In the Peninsula, indeed, the central tract consisting of high and almost unbroken table-land and the coast being mountainous, there is constantly a current of hot air rising during the summer from the bare and heated earth, and this is replaced by cold air rushing down from the mountains. The almost total absence of trees and forest vegetation exaggerates to the highest extent the evils arising from excessive temperature and rapid changes in this respect, so that now it would be difficult, without much time and labour, to replace the trees that probably at one time abounded in certain districts. Something might be done in the vicinity of the capital; but the Spaniard hates trees, and seems nowhere at home but on a trackless plain or in a treeless desert.

We are now back again in Madrid, and the reader must be

prepared to accompany me once more across the plains through Castile into La Mancha, and thence enter the grand defiles (almost impregnable if in any other country, but here neglected by the inhabitants in the time of need) which separate Andalusia from the northern provinces. The first thirty miles of this road are now rapidly traversed by means of a railway, forming part of a main line from Madrid to Alicant actually in course of construction, and likely to be finished within a reasonable time. The thirty miles at present opened conduct to the royal residence of Aranjuez, situated pleasantly in the valley of the Tagus, and more than fairly appreciated by visitors and Spaniards, owing to the contrast that exists in coming suddenly upon this little oasis after traversing the sterile wastes that extend unbroken from Madrid to the town. Like most of the principal river valleys of Spain, as I have already mentioned in speaking of the Ebro, it consists of a deep cleft in the table-land, the two sides of the fissure being often separated by a distance of many miles. In such depressions the river pursues its course, and the banks of the stream are naturally moister and more favourable for vegetation than the plains above.

After passing Aranjuez, its gardens, trees, and water-course, there still remain to traverse a full hundred miles of barren and totally uninteresting country, extending in one almost unbroken plain to the edge of the table-land. There is then seen a phænomenon of great interest to the geologist, as the road winds along not far from the foot of a low escarpment, evidently at one time the margin of a lake or sea, though now only enclosing a perfectly flat expanse of sand and limestone. The mean elevation of the table-land of La Mancha is considered to be at least 2000 feet above the sea, and the ground rises gradually towards the south, enclosing and shutting in the central provinces, and separating them most effectually from the southern. The defiles by which Andalusia is entered afford a singular and most striking contrast to the plain country hitherto traversed, and the more so as we appear to come suddenly into the very heart of a mountainous country at a very high level.

Once entered, the pass leading out of La Mancha presents a succession of magnificent views, not altogether without tree vegetation, and this character of the scenery extends as far as Bailen; the whole of the road to that town lying within the

rocky and irregular Sierra which forms the termination southwards of the great table-land, and on the whole consisting of a broken descent into the first of a series of nearly parallel valleys, reaching with alternating ridges of mountain and hill to the Mediterranean coast. It is near this point that the great deposits of lead ore occur in the mountains, and probably no known mineral field is so rich in supplies of this metal*. These deposits, associated with much silver and occasionally with copper ores, occur in each of the limestone districts parallel to the main axis of the Sierra Nevada.

Passing Jaen, the road enters a broken tract of country abounding with fruit-trees and richly cultivated, opening into the valley of one of the main branches of the Guadalquivir, the other having been crossed at Menjibar, between Bailen and Jaen. This valley opens out, and is traversed by numerous watercourses, mostly dry, between a low range of hills to the north and the chain of the Sierra Nevada, which is seen stretching out in its full extension as the road descends into the so-called Vega, or plain of Granada.

There is no doubt that the aspect of this plain from any of the enclosing heights is both grand and extremely pleasing, though, perhaps, it has been a little exaggerated by the natural enthusiasm of the traveller whose eye has become accustomed to utter sterility. After crossing Spain, anything green and vegetable looks delicious; but if it were not for that, I do not think the mere vegetation, as seen in passing along the road, would be considered so remarkable, while on the other hand the dust is so troublesome as to put a terrible check upon admiration of any kind. The first view of the Sierra Nevada, however, rising to the height of nearly 13,000 feet, and covered even at the end of August with very visible and numerous patches of snow, is a feature equally remarkable for its grandeur and beauty, and affords a noble back-ground to the cultivated garden-like appearance in the nearer distance. The subtropical character of the vegetation in these plains did not strike me so forcibly as

*The mines of Linares, long celebrated and exceedingly rich for lead, are situated to the east of Bailen, near the Sierra Morena. The difficulty and expense of conveying stores to the mine and the ore to market are the only drawbacks to the production, but these are sufficient to check the workings except when lead bears a high price in the market.