Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-14
BREWERS AND BOERS OF BEER AND MANUFACTURERS OF ICE

mount its utmost crag and study its topog-
raphy with my own eyes, while feasting
| upon the matchless panorama thus afforded.
/ In two hours time, including the digni6ed
| delay required in the issuance of 4 permit
| by the military secretary, in Gunner's lane,
/ stood alongside the signal tower FL
| HachO, from which, 1t Is said, with q pow
erful glass, the Bay of Biscay can be seen,
while the valley in which is built the capi-
tai of Morocco, the city of Fee, is plainly
| discerned.
Improbable Gibraltar upon which one
now stands is the outiutting promontory of
a long, narrow strip of land and rock, form
| ing peninsula on the eastern shore of the
| bay of Gibraltar, or Aleeciras as it is
sometimes called The latter is shaped
| like horseshoe, open 10 the south, its
western shore extremity terminating in
| Cabrita Point. This bay is perhaps eight
miles long from north to south, and i've
miles broad from east to west. The penin-
sula terminating in the Rock slopes grad
ually down from the Spanish mountains to
/ the Spanish lines just north of the ruins of
the old Spanish Notifications, and between
. this and the Rock is what is known as Neu-
trail ground, fat sandy reach, a mile and
4 half in length.
Upon this. close to the Rock, are the Eng
lish race-cOurse, the battle-ground and the
Jewish and the garrison cemeteries. The
narrow strip connecting Gibraltar with the
mainland has every appearance of having
been beneath the waves at no remote date,
and the English have rendered Gibraltar
unaSsailable by q land force through engin-
eering contrivances by which the entire
strip could, in an instant, be blown to
powder and covered by the sea.
At the southern end Of this sand covered
bed of mines the rock rises almost perpen-
dicularly for over fourteen hundred feet.
Many fancy its contour resembles lion
couchant, with its head reared aloft to the
north and towards Spain 1t is grand
enough without the smile; breaking away
in lessening crags to the south and again
confronting Africa with q lesser but none
the less insurmouutable wall of stone, about
whose base the sea ceaselessly roars and
lashes, hinging spume and spray to
tremendous heights among the crags of
Europa point. 1t is three miles from the
landward face of rock to its seaward front
of stone.
The average width of the huge monolith
is three-fourths of a mile. The rock,
practically sea-encircled, is completely
girlded at its base with cannon. Cannon
protrude from. innumerable bastions and
outworks from base to peak Cannon
hundreds of them, are bedind PORTFOLIOS,
cut from the solid rock, IN hewn chambers
beneath the mountain, tier on tier and
miles in length. Cannon are upon every
crag and precipice upon its very peaks. 1t
is a stupendous mountain of stone out of
whose sides, at every angle, can be poured
more awful destruction than ever issued
frSm theivery craters ofEtna and Vesuyius.
Barring the comparably few cannon upon
the heights 1t is all peaceful enough in APP
pearance 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 400 feet to the
Mediterranean. Away down there like q
line of sea foam and driftwood cast upon a
thread of shingly shore ben cath gray precl-
pices, lies little Catalan. the lonesomest and
most picturesque fishing village in all Eu-
rope. 1t is said some GenOese fishermen
were shipwrecked here, and fastened to the
rocks like things of the sea, a thousand or
SO years ago. Sometimes great columns Of
stone, falling from quarter of mile above
them, crash through their white shell OF
houses and grind a score or so Of souls into
the fiinty shore. The thunders Of siege have
no terrors tor them. They cannot be dis
lodged. Aud they remain there the only
things of life On Gibraltar's Mediterranean
shore.
Just opposite the Northern Pinnacle"
on the western shore, the Old Mole or
breakWater extends 100 feet into the bay.
Just one-half the distance from this 70
Europa Point the New Mole has been
pushed into the sea nearly 1000 feet. Here
is safe anchorage for the entire merchant
time several hundred crafts of all nations
may be seen in the bay of Gibraltar; while
converging or diverging towards 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 the sea gulls' wings. and
some trailing behind their huge tunnels |
what from your dizzy height seem like deli |
cately penciled fronds of shadow upon the
radiant waters blue.
Down there between the two moles You
can see the fat 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 precipitogs than elsewhere, stands q |
huge Moorish tower, Just 1850 years old, |
built by the first Moorish invaders, and the |
most ancient. perfectly preserved relic OF !
Moslem rule in Spain. 1t is almost entire |
in its massive strength, though honey |
c0mbed by innumeTaOie cannon balls, sivhile /
its great tower of Homage IS now a powder /
magazine. while modern barracks and on |
GERS quarters with pleasant gardens i'll the |
area withinits ancient walls.
To the south Africa seems but a step !
across cleaning pool. 10 the east there
is only the vast Mediterranean. dotted with /
many strange and curious craft To the /
west the sight ranges over beautiful and !
picturesuue harbor scene, with every man |
ner Of ship that floats, from the leFi2than i