Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-13

chambers beneath the mountain, tier on
tier, and miles in length. Cannon are upon
every crag and precipice upon its very
peaks. 1t is stupendous mountain of
stone out of whose sides, at every angle.
can be poured more awful destruction than
ever issued from the very craters of A1tna
and Vesuvius.
Barring the comparatively few cannon
upon the heights, it is all peaceful enough
in appear ance where YOU stand beside the
signal station. Pretty foot and donkey
paths wind to shaded roadways below.
Over to the east the Rock falls sheer l. 400
feet to the. Mediterranean. Away down
there like line of sea foam and driftwood
cast upon a thread of shingly shore be-
meath gray precipices. lies little Catalan.
the lonesomest and most picturesque fish
ing village in all Europe. 1t is said some
Genoese fishermen were shipwrecked here,
and fastened to the rocks like things of
the sea, thousand or so years ago
Sometimes great columns of stone, falling
from quarter of mile above them,
crash through their white shells of houses
and grind score of souls into the tilnty
shore. The thunders of siege have no ter
rors for them. They cannot be dislodged.
And they remain there the only things of
life on Gibraltar's Mediterranean shore.
safe Anchorage for a Navy.
Just opposite the FrNorthern Pinnacle, /"
on the western shore, the Old Mole or
breakwater extends l. 100 feet into the bay.
Just one-half the distance from this to
Europa Point the New Mole has been
pushed INTO the sea nearly 200 feet. Here
is safe anshorage for the entire merchant and
battle ships of eat-Britain. AT any time
several hundred craft Of all nations may be
seen in the BAY of Gibraltar; while con-
Yerging or diyerging toward and from the
narrow strait dividing two continents are
ever in view stately professions of the trade
argosies of the world: some under sails
white as seaguils' wings, and some trailing
behind their huge tunnels what from your
dizzy height seem like delicately-penciled
fronds of shadow upon the radiant waters
blue
Down there between the two moles you
can see the fiat roofs of the city crouching
beneath the crags. AT its northern end,
Just abreast of the Old Mole, and well up
the mountainside, which on the west is less
precipitous than elsewhere. stands huge
Moorish tower, just l, $50 years old, built
by the first Moorish invaders, and the most
ancient perfectly preserved relic OF Mosiem
rule in Spain. 1t is almost entire in Its
massive strength though honeycombed by
innumerable cannon balls; while its great
tower of homage is now powder magazine,
while modern barracks and officers quarters
with pleasant gardens fill the area within
its ancient walls.
A Picturesque Harbor Scene.
To the south, Africa seems but step
across a cleaning pool To the east there
is only the vast Mediterranean, dotted with
many strange and curious craft To the
west, the sight ranges over beautiful and
picturesqe harbor scene, with every man.
ner of ship that floats, from the leviathan
man-of-war to the lateen sailed
felluea, including a half-dozen Ameri-
can schooners and barks with their shapely
hulls and slender spars, and rests beyond
the waters of the bay upon the circling
Spanish shore.
All this is what one can see at Ell Hacho
upon the heights OF Gibraltar; but what
wraiths of history mythic and real, crowd
from the past upon the wondrous scene!
If Gibraltar were not unique and the
most gigantic fortress in the world, it would
still be a spot of rarest interest and charm
to the traveller The scenic beauties from
any portion of the embattled mountains are
not surpassed in the whole 1000 miles
III.
and three Kingdoms are here within cannon
shot of wherever you may stand. The'rides
and drives into the most luxuriant and
fruitful portion of Southern Spain, all with
in days journey, bring within observation
and enjoyment every feature of high or low
Spanish life which could be studied in
journey from France to Portugal.
The City and Its Folk.
And of the city? 1t has 90 900 souls ex-
elusive of the 5000 or 5000 officers and men
of the garrison. Terrace on terrace it
threads along the waters edge. 1t is mass
of archways, stairs, subterranean thorough
fares, spiral passages, viaducts, vaulting
footways, narrow vistas broken by quaint
est corners, angles, balconies and roofs, and
altogether the strangest, most curious and
winsome tumble of human habitations and
thoroughfares men ever built to shelter men
and trade.
Then of the folk of Gibraltar; were you
to get together from all Spanish cities their
most characteristic lowly: bring from Genoa
and Naples their most picturesque fisher
men, hunt Tangier and Fez for weirdest
Berber, Kahbayle, Moor and Hebrew; and
dragnet the entire Mediterranean shoals for
waterside folk that looked the fisher,
smuggler and pirate in one; and thread
among all these the scarlet and blue of
thousands of the soldiery and a-tillerymen
of the great fortress, you would still have q
no more varied, changetuI, weird and color
full scene than at any hour of any day your
eyes may behold, from the Almeda garden
below the Moorish Tower, down through
the waterproof street, in this Moorish built,
Spanish-fnished and English-held olden
fortress town. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.