Show the position GIBRALTAR and appearance orthe of the famous hock rock for forace a very y obvious reason gibraltar is better known than malta vm vesela els fr from orn the north and west seeking the ports of sicily or auy any of the ports situated along the northern shores of the mediterranean are not nece necessarily marily celled upon to visit malta but they must go through the straits there is no other way by which they can enter the waters of the mediterranean to seafaring men therefore the rock of gibraltar is a ia fa fight eight seen from the sea at some little distance gibraltar says the brooklyn eigle E igle has the appearance of a huge detached rock it docs does not disappoint you it is massive massive grand imposing As you draw nearer you are more im impressed with its towering grandeur its frowning majesty and you feet that you are in the presence of one ant of the tile greatest military strongholds strong holds on he lie face lace of tho the globe a stronghold which nature art and science have combined to make impregnable from the nearer view you gather that the rock is not detached detach ed as at first it seemed but connected with the im inn inland by a low lying strip of ta t iri tory which you by and b by learn is called the neutral brouny ground it is really a singular looking moun tain for mountain it is and on one of which ibid difficult to convey to the mind odthe of the reader an all adequate picture one celebrated writer has aid of it that it cannot be described by cither either pen or pencil and that the eye is is with gazing upon it geographically kopea speaking kin the southern extremity N of the spanish peninsula pen itself beliy being alg a running djuth from alida andalusia da dal lusia tisia and its ln buot nt southern head mid known asi point europa being in latitude SG 36 degrees minutes 30 seconds north and in I longitude degrees 15 minute minutes 12 seconds west TOE THE CAY DAY it w is customary for steam vessels going to and coming from the east halt ut gibraltar this gives the passengers nn an opportunity anity of taking in the tile dimensions of the spacious bay lay a ai well as of a I more or close infection of tho the rock the bay is about eight miles long by five broad and has a depth in the center ofus of upward of fathoms opposite the rock right across the bay and about five mil miles es d distant pt antii ia the tile spanish town of algeciras AIge Alge siras which with gibraltar sometimes rome times gives its name to the bay the bay algeciras Alge siras or gibraltar is a lively and interesting spot used as a a coaling station by most of the steamship lines there are always one or more inore ve sels leaving or entering it is quite a common occurrence to cast in the bay for a few hours long enough to allow of a visit to the town of gibraltar to the fortification or to the neutral ground and the spanish lines linc beyond gibraltar being a free port the bay is crowded with what are called bumboats bum boats whose owners ners do a rattling trado trade in nil all kinds of smuggled goods gin bein being in particular demand and plentiful plentifully sold at tit one shilling 91 or 25 cents a quart one of the interesting ob j acta which attracts the nt attention lention of the strangers and which he lie is i is certain to visit is the hulk bulk of tho war ves vessel asel in ill which captain marryatt wrote roost most of ochia his very entertaining novel novels the vessel is esthe the permanent peri na home of a polite old english sea captain and is the pro property erty ef of the ren peninsular insular and oriental steamboat company erho use it for coal supplies THE ASPECT OF THE PLACE seen from then bay the rock while it gives you an idea of strength and majesty is bare and uninviting there are no trees the strata of rock which arc plainly el arc are composed of gray p primary r marble near the base t abo surface is red and sandy higher up the rock is covered with short ind and scanty grass gram or moss from inquiry or from closer inspection you loarn it arn that in the crevices of tho the hill arc are to be found in sm season lan as garagu par agu capers ea rs palm clas aloes and such kr nor ia ii it destitute de denti tute of fauna for in the diore elevated may be seen rabbits partridge partridges pig pigeons woodcock and awn colored barbara barbir apes As hooting is ali discourage ailiese crea lures lur caare are in a kind of pan pant dise of dwir own tt T t at the highest point fhe he sugar loaf loof the roel rock attains an le of 1439 feet above the level of the sea THE TRE FORTRESS it 11 is about three miles long and about three quarters of a mile wide and surrounded by water except on the north tide side where it connects with the tile land by the low lying territory above referred to on this side bide however the rock is perpendicular and absolutely units unassailable sailable on the djuth and cast where it is washed by the sea it is very steep an and rugged drugged ou the westside wes west side taide only ia is the rock from its natu natural ral conformation susceptible of attack it it is ou on t this his side therefore the side fronting the bay where art and eci ence have bave come to the aid of nature at the base in is the town of gibraltar a town peopled by eulish english spaniards jews and moors fo to the number of soma some thi this doe does not include the garrison which is is generally some liz six thousand strong it is not until you begin to ascend the hill on this side and to inspect the works with your own eyes that you become fully impressed with the magnitude and strength of the fortress gallery rises above gallery tier above tie tier and all the re resources burces of modern zei enci enc hate have been drawn upon to make cannonading canno effective and easy and to give protection to the the principal princ principal ifal batteries are all an and traver sers have hive been constructed to prevent mischief from exploding shell shells the olid solid rock has literally been honeycombed and irom from thousand thousands of unsuspected apertures aper tures the black nuzzles project themselves vp gibraltar is a gigantic battery and such a battery in full operation it is i something awful to contemplate THE CAVERNS once on the rock and having baying partially at least examined the works it is difficult to resist the temptation emp tation to visit the signal house toward the summit and afterwards the interior caverns which are numerous and as wonderful as they are numerous chief among them are the halls oi of st SL michael which have an entrance 1000 feet above the level of the sea through chamber after chamber some of them larger some of them smaller and by narrow and winding passages you reach a depth of feet belew the entrance foul air makes further descent impossible ampo lebut but the roaring of the a aea ea di distinctly state t I encourages the belief that t these he gloomy itly caves have communication with the tile w waters aters beneath the caverns abound with stalactites and some of them are very beautiful ahr TOWN the town of gibraltar a et ss ats ta nf of one long street called water st with some short ones which run up the brow of the kill at right angles at the extremity of this road toward the straits the ground which flatters flat teris out somewhat is reserved for military purposes ur poses suck as barracks pam parade e grounds etc although the principal parade ground is at the other enta end of f the roc rock the tle i northern end and inside the line lines which separate the british territory from tho the neutral ground reviews and sham fights arc are at this latter place of frequent occurrence the town is not wanting for life ire it ita motley population secures for it some variety of character neither is the spaniard nor the jew seen here at his best but you are not permitted to wander long ong in ill the he streets of gibraltar without seeing some sonic attractive specimens odthe of alie black eyed black robed but far skinned beauties of spain its attractions tr are not great otherwise it was at one time reputed to be one of the dirtiest towns in europe and was periodically vi visited cited with fever which worked sad ead havoc with the troops oblate of lute years the drainage has been greatly improved and what with the alie most stringent regulations on the part odthe of the police the death rate has been greatly dimin ishad and the streets made tidy A s there arc are no springs of w water ater on the rock the inhabitants depend for their water upon the rainfall the rain rain tanks lanka constitute a fl feature of the place the gre great atnay navy tank for the supply of ships calm calling at the port capable of holding from to ton tons of water bei being n g specially conspicuous the place is is all well supplied with grain and other necessaries the public buildings are not r remarkable there are a few hotel hotek such as the clubhouse the and the spanish hotel tte the catholics have a cathedral and a bi bishop bop the protestant episcopalians Episcopal ians have a cathedral and a bishop there are four jewish synagogues and three good public libraries all religions are tolerated the law of england prevails and the government is administered by a governor sip by the british crown this I im im i position has been held for beveral years by lord napier the hero of magdala gibraltar was at one time a rather expensive possession the civil as well as the military burdens being borne by the home honie government latterly at terly however by judicious arrangement the town is is made to support itself the mi military I gitary eap exp expenses anses of course are t till det defrayed rayed by the imperial Imps Imp rial triAl government THE HISTORY OF THE PLACE the creat great value consists mainly in in ita its position pasi tion it command commands or is supposed to command the western gateway of the mediterranean its peculiar conformation of course rendering it available as a fortress increases its it value there can be no doubt that its importance as a place ha has been recognized from a very early period the phoenicians ns the greek greeks the carthaginians the romans roust must each in turn havo have seen how if necessity called for it the great solitary rock could be easily converted into int a great bulwark of defense it waa not however till the year A D that the place was made use of for any military purpose in that year larick sayid saya d when lending leading a body of saracena saracens Sara cens against the tile of the aber iberian an peninsula fortified it as a base of oper adious and a convenient point of access from the barbary coast from this chieftain it is supposed to live have taken its name gebel tari or hill of tarik for centuries it shared in the revolution revolutions of the moora moors of spain being now in the hands of one party and now in the hands of another in 1309 it fell into the hands of the christians of castile Gasi ile under antonio de guzman in 1333 it was captured by the king off ezat remained in the bands of the moors till about the middle of the fifteenth century when it again became the property of th the e spaniards the place ha had in cach each successive successive gen generation emdon acquired additional dit ional strength and in the seventeenth century it was teemed impregnable by the roost most competent military engineers it was cA CArru nr KED IN 1704 by tome some english forces under sir george rooka aided by the dutch under the prince of hesse darm stadt from that time it has remained in the possession of england and in spite pite L of repeated efforts on the part of france and spain the british flag has continued to float proudly from its ramparts the famous siege which was begun in 1779 constitutes one on e of the most memorable episodes of modern history it lasted three years seven months and twelve days the great attack was made on september 1782 nine line of battlo battle ships fifteen cen g gun and nd mortar boats and 70 pi pieces es of ordnance of large caliber from f ro m the spanish linca li ca poured their destructive missiles upon the fort the firing was continued day after day until the when tho the combined french and spanish fleet fleets numbering forty seven sail of the lin line e and other boats anchored i in n the bay the defenders resorted to red hot balls and thee these with carcases and incendiary shells they concentrated on the ships in unceasing volleys one by one the av ships in the bay buy caught lire fire and on t the e when ten ien of the invincible floating batteries were destroyed stroyd de the tile attack wua was discontinued the gateway of the mediterranean saw saved for this heroic defense general elliott was raised to the peer peerage n e as us lord heathfield of gibraltar the same lord heathfield whom macaulay so 10 gracefully race fully introduces tro duces into his famous tableau when describing the trial of warren in 1868 there was an attempt at sit agitation in favor of f abandoning the fort but it found few friends spain has a hankering after the place but it is hardly reasonable to conclude that gibraltar brahar Gi will be abandoned so a long as great britain retains supremacy at sea ea it is is perhaps over valued in theirl times out ut its posses eion sion is necessary to the maintenance of british prestige |