The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1885-08-02
Gibraltar.
TRplpravia I

Military discipline ii here the great order
of the day. Never for one moment can You
forget the rnling spirit. You dare not pro
duce pencil and notebook till your sketch
ing pass is duly signed and conntsrsigned !,
and even that is only given for a linited Pc
riod and with the proviso that you must make
nodrawing ofany fortfcation, { as II yon conld
omit the one characteristic of the place) At
every turn yon come on new batteries, great
guns and mortars, with their thousand hard,
black eyes, keeping watch and ward. Death s
playthings everywhere, the very gardens
yielding only grapeshOt and other Dead Sea
fruit. Beside the graceful tlowsr-vases ars
heaped up great pyramids Of cannon balls ;
fged bayonets CLEAN beneath ths spiked
aloes tall plumes of grasses wave over
pinned bonnets, and scarlet blossoms re-
solve themselves into tartans as first one,
then another well-known regiment marches
down with pipes playing, for there is q field
day on the parade ground in az picturesque
a spot as you are likely to find, and Span.
iaris and MOOrs, Jews and Britons, are
among the spectators, to say nothing of
Rock scorpions, as English children born on
4" Old Glib" are called.
Doubtless, also, the Barbary apes are look
ing down ON MS from their haunts among the
cliffs, where they still and q refuge, being
protected by stringent lava. They are tail.
less, OF course, as their name implies. Poor
humble-looking creatures, yet more precious
than all their long tailed brethren. inasmuch
as they are the sole representatives of the
monkey tribe still existing in Europe. They
are found, however, in vast numbers Oh the
coast of Barbary AMI this handful on the
Rock seems to corrobOrate the story of the
former union of the two continents. Itwould
seem that the making of the Phmnician
Canal had cut oil the retreat of this little
garrison, isolating them from their fellows.
Bnt, though they alone remain as living
proofs of the time when Europe and Africa
were one, there are wonderful cages IN the
rock where homes Of elephants and rhinoce-
roses, leopards, and hyenas lie bleaching
together, as they have lain for countless CEN
tnries strange memorials of still more re-
mote ages, when they and their fellows were
free to wander at large through Spanish and
Italian forests, aud thence pass nndisturbed
TO Calais and across the dry land 10 Dover,
there to leave their old bones for the wonder
and edilcation OF curious and inqusitive
human beings in this nineteenth century.
The caves are not all antediluvian tombs.
Some have been homes of the living, who
have sought an asylum in times OF danger.
One OF OF the most interesting of these
rock dwellings is known as Martins Cave
its only entrance is from the actual face OF
the prscipice, the perpendicular cliff tower.
ing 700 feet above 1t, while an equally pre-
cipitous wall of natural aud artificial iortia-
cation lies between il and the calm blue sea
below. The only access to this cave Is along
a steep and dangerous rocky ledge. scarcely
to be- called path, whence one false step
wOuld hurlyon through midaIr 10 fluid your
rest In the quiet waters fine Mediterranean.
but within the cavern yau will End still
quieier waters, Nop pass from the glowing
sunlight into tho dim, ghostly cave, where
tall stalagmites rise up to meet the pendant
stalactites which adorn the roof, giving an
effect OF gray pillars, some slender, some
massive, aud az you peer through these
into the innermost recesses of the cave you
perceive still, dark pool, into which fro,n
time TO time one single drop of water falls
with dull splash from the rock above.